Cherry Cupcakes

I went cherrypicking a couple of months ago, and I ended up with an abundance of cherries, many of which are still in my freezer now. In the past, I’ve made cherry bars and attempted to make cherry pie. But this year, I felt like cupcakes.

Cherry Cupcakes with Cherry Frosting

Cherry Cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
1 cup cherry halves
(optional) red food coloring

Cherry Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons kirsch
1/2 cup of dry, pitted, and chopped cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
4. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the butter mixture, mixing well after each yolk.
5. Add almond extract and stir to combine.
6. Add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between them and mixing until just combined.
7. Beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.
8. Fold the egg whites into the batter, along with the cherries and cherry juice.
9. Optionally, add some red food coloring to make the cupcakes pinker.
10. Fill 24 cupcake liners about 2/3 full with the batter.
11. Bake the cupcakes for 18~20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
12. Make the frosting by first beating the butter and salt together until light and fluffy.
13. Slowly add 3 cups of powdered sugar, half a cup at a time, until the sugar is incorporated into the frosting.
14. Add the vanilla extract and kirsch and mix until combined.
15. Fold in the pitted cherries and stir until they’re evenly distributed.
16. Once the cupcakes are cool, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Here’s the batter, with the pink hue from some food coloring. You can see the chopped cherries in the batter.

The batter, in the cupcake liners.

Mine were done after 18 minutes. Some of the cherries have burst in the oven.

I actually ended up with more than 24 cupcakes…

The frosting, with cherries.

I piped the cherry frosting onto the cupcakes, and I topped them each with a cherry half.

The solid chunks of cherries made it a bit hard to pipe the frosting evenly, since they clogged the tip. Well, that and my terrible piping skills were to blame.

The cupcakes were nice and moist, with a strong cherry flavor. The frosting didn’t taste all that much like cherry, though, since it was mostly sugar, after all.