I made these cupcakes for a dear friend of mine who lives rather far away from me, but whenever she’s in town we never miss the opportunity to meet. She’s a lovely girlie lass and I thought these pink cupcakes would be a good match 🙂

These are from the Making Cupcakes with Lola book and I was very pleased with the results. I tweaked it a little because I wanted to use some fresh cherries I had.

CHERRY CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS
100g self-raising flour
70g flour
¾ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
95g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
85ml full fat milk
90g cherry jam (I used 1 ½ pitted cherry per cupcake instead)
2 tbsp flaked almonds

METHOD
Preheat oven to 190°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cups.
Sift together flours, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and soft. Add in the eggs, beating after each addition. Alternate milk and sifted ingredients.
Heat jam in the microwave until it becomes slightly liquid (about 15 secs) and pour it into the batter, mixing it lightly – OR place the cherries on the bottom of the paper cups, if like me you’re using fresh cherries.
Pour batter into prepared tin and sprinkle a little almond on top of each cupcake, pressing down a bit.
Bake for about 20 minutes and leave it to cool.

MASCARPONE TOPPING

INGREDIENTS
240ml double cream
240g mascarpone
200g icing sugar
food colouring, optional

METHOD
Beat double cream until soft peaks start to form.
In another bowl, beat together mascarpone, sugar and food colouring until well incorporated. Gently mix in double cream and apply using a piping bag.