Recipe By Debbie Hargreaves
These Black Cherry & Almond Cupcakes are a delicious twist on a classic Bakewell-inspired flavour combination. A soft almond sponge made with Black Cherry Flavoured Icing Sugar is filled with sweet raspberry jam, then topped with a rich black cherry buttercream and finished with a cherry on top.
Fruity, nutty and beautifully indulgent, they’re perfect for afternoon tea, celebrations or simply when you fancy baking something a little special.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
150g Baking margarine
75g Caster sugar
75g Black Cherry icing sugar
100g Self raising flour
3 Medium free-range eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp Baking powder
60g Ground almonds
90g Raspberry jam
For the buttercream:
250g Butter
250g Superfine plain icing sugar
250g Black Cherry icing sugar
Topping
Fresh or glacé cherries
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
- For the cupcakes, cream the margarine and sugars in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients, except the raspberry jam, and mix until well combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- For the icing, beat softened butter until light and creamy, add Icing sugars and beat until incorporated. Scrape down and beat on medium/high for 10-20 seconds.
- Using an apple corer, carefully remove the middle of the cupcakes. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam.
- Pipe a swirl of the icing onto the top of each cake and top with a cherry
Tips: If you would like to boost the Almond flavour in the sponge, you could add half a teaspoon of Just flavour Almond to the batter. To boost the almond flavour in the buttercream, mix Bakewell Tart flavoured icing sugar with Black Cherry.
