Sweet Almond Cupcakes

The word of the day is almonds.

And cupcakes.

Sweet almond cupcakes. Doesn’t that name just roll off your tongue?

They barely lasted three days in our kitchen. These pictures are killing me, I already want another one.

Luckily, these are easy to make. Easy, peasy. Like you can make them in under an hour and toast your almonds while they are cooling. The icing is easy too. Really, now you have no excuse not to make these.

The cupcake recipe is a fanatically easy recipe from Pastry Affair. If you are feeling oh-so bold, instead of icing, you can even sprinkle some of the toasted almonds onto the cupcake before you stick them in the oven to bake.

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Yield: 12 cupcakes

Sweet Almond Cupcakes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter/margarine, room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup almond buttermilk  (2/3 cup almond milk, 2/3 tbsp apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Icing

• 3/4 cup powdered icing sugar
• Almond Milk
• 1/2 tsp margarine

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F. Prep your muffin tin by greasing it or lining with muffins liners.
2. In a bowl or measuring cup, measure out almond milk and add apple cider vinegar to create almond buttermilk. Let sit for a few minutes while you assemble everything else.
3. Beat the butter/margarine until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time and add almond extract.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
5. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat well. Add a little bit of the almond buttermilk and beat well. Continue this until you have no more flour mixture or almond butter milk and your batter is well-mixed.
6. Fill your muffin tin or liners 3/4 full of cupcake batter and bake for 15-18 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool on a wired rack.
7. In a large bowl, add the icing sugar, margarine and about 1/2 tbsp of almond milk. Mix together and add more almond milk if needed to make the icing thinner (don’t add too much, or you’ll be back to adding more icing sugar!)
8. Lightly layer on the icing and immediately sprinkle with the toasted almonds. Resist the urge to lick your fingers.

Recipe adapted from Pastry Affair

These muffins keep in an air-tight container, but the almonds can get a little soft over a few days if not eaten right away. If you need to make them ahead of time, I suggest making the cupcakes and then having the icing and toasted almonds on hand for the spreading and the sprinkling.