This Cherry Vanilla Cupcake recipe makes moist and fluffy cupcakes. Their crowning glory is the homemade Cherry Buttercream Frosting. These are both festive and so delicious.
There’s a reason I haven’t baked, nor posted, a decadent dessert recipe for months. I made a commitment to lose weight, and so I have! I do love to bake, but the temptation of indulging would sabotage my progress.
As luck would have it, I was invited to a potluck. Huzzah! Now is my opportunity to bring a dessert, and I did not hold back!
During the early years of my blog (est. 2007), I made a Cherry Vanilla Cake with a Swiss Buttercream Frosting. Swiss Buttercream Frosting is a lot more work, so I opted for American Buttercream. Cupcakes seemed a more practical dessert to bring, so I wouldn’t have to worry about cutting it into slices.
Cake batter, from scratch, is my favorite way to bake. For the ingredients, you’ll need flour, butter, sour cream (moisture insurance), almond extract, egg whites and leaveners. A cookie scoop makes filling each baking liner 2/3 of the way easy peasy. Bake at 350F until a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs stuck to it.
Carefully remove the cupcakes to a cooling rack. Now for the best part… frosting! Buttercream frosting is so easy to make! The ingredients are simple– butter and powdered sugar. Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer is my preferred method of creaming butter and sugar. Truthfully, I really don’t measure how much powdered sugar to use. The texture I’m looking for is silky and creamy. Adding one cup of powdered sugar at a time, the whisk is working on medium speed. If too much powdered sugar makes the frosting too thick, add a teaspoon, at a time, of milk or heavy cream. If it’s too thin, add a little powdered sugar until it’s the consistency you like.
To flavor the buttercream, a little almond extract and the liquid from a bottle of Maraschino Cherries gives both flavor and pretty pink color.
I took a piping class years ago and it’s fun for me to put those skills to practice. A piping bag and a large 1M tip makes frosting cupcakes a breeze. Otherwise, just scoop a mound of frosting and spread it with an off-set spatula.
That color pink is perfection! The maraschino cherries are missing the juice. There’s no sense in wasting the cherries. One last step…
There! All done. This recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes. So, why are there eleven? Quality control! Husband and I cut one in half to taste.
TASTING NOTES: The vanilla cake is fluffy and tender, with just a subtle hint of almond extract (a perfect compliment to cherry flavor). The frosting is silky, creamy and buttery. The maraschino cherry juice adds such a pretty color and compliments the vanilla cake. Delicious! These cupcakes are moist and the frosting is creamy and rich. I’m glad I could give most of these away. I need to maintain my girlish figure! Any leftover frosting can be stored in the refrigerator, or stored for future use. It would be fun to though, it would be tempting to make sugar cookie sandwiches with the leftover frosting. The buttercream recipe is so versatile. The flavor can be changed in so many ways, from coffee to peppermint. It’s that versatile. There’s no need to buy canned frosting!
Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons sour cream room temperature
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 3 large egg whites divided; see notes
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons milk room temperature
- 2 tablespoons water room temperature
For the frosting:
- 16 tablespoons salted butter 2 sticks; room temperature
- 32 ounces powdered sugar see notes
- 1 jar maraschino cherries (long-stemmed) to garnish each cupcake frosting
- 6 tablespoons cherry juice from maraschino cherry jar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tsp heavy cream or milk to thin frosting as needed (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light in color and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- Mix in sour cream and almond extract until well combined.
- Add one egg white and mix until combined.
- Add remaining two egg whites and mix until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the batter and mix until well combined.
- Add the milk and water and mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture and mix until well combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
- Fill the cupcake liners about halfway to two-thirds full of batter. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
- Removed cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the frosting:
- Beat softened butter in a large mixing bowl until completely smooth and fluffy.NOTE: I use the whisk attachment in my stand mixer.
- Gradually beat in about two cup of powdered sugar. NOTE: Cover the mixing bowl with a clean towel to avoid a powdered sugar "dust storm".
- Add the maraschino cherry juice and almond extract until completely combined.
- Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time. The amount of powdered sugar varies. Add about 4 cups of sugar, and then one more cup at a time, depending on how thick you want the frosting to be.
- If your frosting is too thick, add in milk or heavy cream, until it reaches the consistency you desire.
Frosting the cupcakes:
- Using an ice cream scoop add a dollop of frosting and spread with an off-set spatula. -OR-
- Fill a piping bag with frosting and a large tip (1M). Garnish with a long-stemmed maraschino cherry.
Notes
Nutrition
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