Cherry Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup dried sweetened tart cherries
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons King Arthur Cake Enhancer, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 tablespoons cherry juice concentrate
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour Blend
- 2/3 cup milk, room temperature
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with papers.
2) Using a food processor or blender, finely chop the dried cherries with 1/4 cup of the sugar.
3) Beat the butter and remaining sugar until the mixture lightens in color and texture, about 90 seconds.
4) Add the oil, and beat until the mixture is light, around 60 seconds.
5) Beat in the sugar/cherries, cake enhancer, salt, baking powder, baking soda, almond extract, and cherry juice concentrate.
6) Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
7) Gently beat in the flour, alternating it with the milk.
8) Divide the batter among the cups. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until cupcakes are very light brown and test done with a cake tester.
9) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and after 5 minutes, transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
10) To make the frosting, make our Quick Buttercream Frosting, substituting 2 tablespoons cherry juice concentrate for 2 tablespoons of the milk. Frost cupcakes when they're completely cool.
Yield: 12 cupcakes.
Reviews
04/27/2012- I make these at home, and really enjoy the light cherry taste - and my family loves that they aren't super sweet, so when I had a cupcake buffet in my advanced cakes class, I tripled this recipe to make 25 cupcakes and one 8-inch round. I firmly believe that the secret is the dried tart cherries and the cherry juice, which gave the cupcakes a lovely pink color. I also used more almond flavoring to boost the cherry-almond theme I was doing, & topped them with some almond-flavored Swiss buttercream & a fondant/marzipan/dark chocolate decoration. Came out great!!!
- 03/31/2012
- Cake batter instructions were superb and taste was nice but subtle. Quick Buttercream Icing had wonderful flavor using the cherry concentrate but to get a softer consistency like I prefer I had to use 3-4 additional tbsp of skim milk in addition to the 2 tbsp of cherry concentrate. I also think my concentrate's color is a little off (more of a dark brown red than true red) so my icing was not the pretty pink as in the picture but more of a beige. Still tasted great though!
- 02/19/2012
- These are my favorite cupcakes. I love cherries to begin with and like that these cupcakes do not contain any artificial flavors or colors. The cherry syrup gives the frosting a great pink color that looks and tastes delicious.
- 12/08/2011
- Any suggestions on how to turn this into a layer cake?
Please call our baker's hotline for assistance with this. ~Amy
- 07/30/2011
- What a great recipe!
- 04/30/2011
- These were delicious. The cupcakes had a mild cherry flavor and nice texture. I thought the dried cherries in them made them seem a little more muffin-y than cupcake-y, and was thinking that a cinnamon streusel topping would be delicious on them instead of frosting (but I'd make them again with frosting too). I used the cherry buttercream (made with the full 2 tbsp of cherry concentrate that the recipe called for and brought to a spreading consistency with about another tbsp of milk) and it was delectable. Only thing I'll have to do differently next time is chop the dried cherries with a knife (or buy a bigger/more powerful food processor) because my food processor is one of those little 3-cup choppers and the dried cherries were too much for it to handle. Also, don't make the mistake I did and put the container full of cupcakes on top of your car and then forget to take it off before driving away... luckily there was not much traffic at that time and I was able to rescue the container from the street and the lid stayed on. The frosting was a mess but I did not let that get in my way! Just fixed up the frosting and ate them anyway! Luckily my friends were forgiving of the cupcakes' slightly disheveled appearance and enjoyed them too!
- 04/24/2011
- Second time making and rating these and they are even better. I used melted butter instead of oil. I still had to omit the dried cherries since I didn't have any on hand, and I still used natural cherry flavor in place of almond extract. I also made the frosting ahead of time and refrigerated until needed, again using natural cherry flavor instead of almond extract. Absolutely delicious! These are winners in my household! I bet these would be really good with coconut milk in place of the regular milk, too....ok, I guess another batch will be in order soon! : ) If you like cherry, you must try these.
04/24/2011- I followed the directions on this cupcake and they turned out to be more like muffins then cupcakes. Did not like.
I am sorry to hear of your difficulty. It sounds like there is too much flour in the batter. Here is the method that we use for volume measurement in all of our recipes: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/measuring-flour.html Hope this helps. Frank @ KAF.
04/22/2011- My family loved these. I did have to make some changes due to ingredient limitations. I didn't have any cake flour on hand, so I used a soft wheat flour and added a touch of potato flour for extra moistness. I was also out of cherries and had to omit those. And next time I'll use all butter instead of any oil. I used natural cherry flavor (available at KAF) in place of almond extract, and the cherry flavor was amazing in the cupcakes. I also used a drop in the icing. It's tart with the full amount of cherry concentrate so start with less if you like your frosting sweet. It was perfect for us with the full amount. The cupcakes aren't a pink color when baked, but my frosting was a nice shade of pink. This one gets 4 stars, because I think it's very good but has room to be even better. I'll be making them again for Easter!
- 04/12/2011
- If you like cherry, this recipe should be a keeper in your recipe box. I agree with another reviewer, that mentions the color of the cakes and icing are a bit gray in color. A touch of pink or red food coloring will fix this problem. I also suggest that you start with only 1 TBS of cherry concentrate in the icing and taste to determine your preference. My daughter thought 2 TBS was a bit over powering. I also suggest increasing the almond extract in the cakes and substituting the vanilla for almond in the icing recipe.
