Cherry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

We bet you’ll love these delicious cherry cupcakes topped with almond flavoured cream cheese icing! These cupcakes are even filled with a sweet surprise that will leave everyone smiling.

The secret is cherry pie filling and vanilla cake batter. Both easy to make or buy! The cupcakes are topped with a light cream cheese icing infused with almond extract – the almond flavour really compliments the cherries. These are the perfect cupcakes to celebrate the season of love.

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What You’ll Need:

• Vanilla cake mix – from a box works – or check out this recipe from our friends at Amanda’s Cookin’
• Cherry pie filling
• Unsalted butter
• Cream cheese
• Almond extract
• Salt
• Powered sugar
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Muffin tin
• Cupcake liners
• Heart candies or sprinkles
• Mixer
• Icing bag
• Large circle icing tip (Wilson 2A)
• Pink gel food colouring

Cherry Cupcakes

Heat the oven to 350. Prepare a muffin tin (or two, this recipe will make two dozen cupcakes easily) with liners. Make your vanilla cake batter using either a premade box mix, your favourite recipe, or we recommend this tasty creation from Amanda’s Cookin’. Spoon 3 tbsps of vanilla batter into each liner. Spoon 1/2 tbsp of pie filling into the centre of the liner, on top of the vanilla batter. Bake as your recipe directs and cool completely before decorating.

TIP: Rushing the cooling step is so tempting but with this icing recipe, any heat will melt the frosting as fast as you’re piping it, so best to be patient here. 🙂

Cream Cheese Icing

Combine softened butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer and beat until creamy, about two minutes. Add the almond extract and then salt, mix well. Gradually add the powdered sugar until completely combined and the icing has a medium stiff consistency.

To make the stripe effect, use a paint brush to brush gel food colouring (liquid colouring will not work for this effect) in four lines running along the inside of a piping bag. Remember to add the icing tip into the bag before you paint the lines inside – it can be added after but it’s messy business.

Fill the bag with icing and then start decorating! It’s best to push the first bit of icing through the tip until the colouring comes out in the right pattern. If you use the entire bag of icing and need to refill, don’t worry! The icing pattern should continue to work even after new icing has been added.

Frost your cupcakes using a classic swirl. Start on the side of the cupcake and pipe three or four circles around the cupcake, each circle getting slightly smaller until you have a cone shape. Decorate with sprinkles or candy hearts and then your all done!

We hope you love these sweet Cherry Cupcakes as much as we do! For more Valentine ideas check out our Hearts Cards Garland, Brownies in a Bottle, and our easy Heart Puzzle Craft. Happy Crafting!