The Little Things
February 13, 2013

I’ve recently gotten on a far bigger cupcake kick than is healthy for myself. I can’t help it- I love ending my day with a delicious cupcake! In the name of Valentine’s Day, I thought these cherry vanilla cupcakes are perfect (and they were absolutely delicious!). One thing I really like about these cupcakes is that they are small (1/4 or 1/3 of the size of a normal bakery cupcake) and are about 250 calories, so I feel like I can eat them more frequently (which means more enjoyment!). You can find the recipe here– I’ll share my personal tips below.

Ingredients

Here’s what I did. I mixed up the cupcake batter per the recipe. Be aware that it includes butter and egg whites standing at room temperature for 30 minutes, so the entire cooking process takes a bit of time. After mixing up the batter, I took 10 maraschino cherries and cut them each into six smaller pieces. I dumped them into the batter and very quickly mixed into the batter before pouring into the cupcake liners (the original recipe calls for putting half a cherry on top of the batter, but I liked having the bits of cherry mixed throughout).

Cherry Vanilla Cupcake Collage

After baking I let cool, and mixed up the cherry-almond butter frosting (recipe can also be found here). I frosted these by filling a ziploc bag with frosting and snipping of a small corner of the bag. This takes some practice to get it right. If you’d like, you can add another cherry to the top before eating!

cherry vanilla cupcake

These are amazing! While they definitely work for Valentine’s Day, the flavor would also be perfect throughout the spring and summer! While these cupcakes do take quite a bit of time (between letting ingredients sit, mixing things up, cooking, and frosting), but it’s definitely worth it! And best yet, this recipe is also lactose free!

Now it’s your turn to share! Growing up my mom used to make a heart cake on Valentine’s Day. Did you grow up having a special dessert for V-day? What’s your dream flavored cupcake? 

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2 responses to “Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes”

  1. Kim @ HealthyNest says:
    February 13, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    Those look delish!!

    I’m all about the mystery chocolates in a heart-shaped box for V day…although nowadays, they always come with a map of what’s where. 🙂

    I remember my mom making a pink strawberry cake once too–that was pretty awesome!