To celebrate season two of me and Jay’s favorite show ‘The Tudors‘ (which is airing tomorrow evening at 9 p.m. on Showtime; plug plug), I wanted to make something to nibble on while watching it. I was thinking about what kind of cupcakes to make, when I decided on something almond-y. The almond extract always makes things taste like marzipan (because marzipan is made with almond paste, duuuh), and marzipan reminds me of kings and queens and fancy desserts with marzipan in the shape of fruits and things like that.

So I decided on almond and I thought white chocolate would go very well with it. However, this being a last minute decision, I didn’t have any white chocolate. Haha. So I used plain buttercream, and then almond-vanilla buttercream on top.

ALMOND CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 ¼ cups milk

Then you:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Cream butter at medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and beat until well mixed.
3. Add two eggs, beat until smooth.
4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to “quick sift” them.
5. Add extracts to butter/sugar/egg mixture. Mix well.
6. Then add flour mixture and beat until nice and smooth.
7. Fill cupcake liners about ¾ full, bake until golden brown.

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Thats my ‘London’ appetizer plate, in tribute to King Henry VIII!

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I frosted them with plain vanilla buttercream and then using a pastry bag, piped on some almond-vanilla buttercream. They aren’t particularly beautiful, not incredibly unique or detailed, but for last minute cupcakes they sure do taste yummy. If I had time, or should I say had I been better prepared… I would’ve made the white chocolate buttercream and bought little marzipan fruits to put on top. Next time I will.

They taste like very very soft Stella D’Oro breakfast treats with frosting. So good. I’m really pleased with this recipe, its a nice alternative to vanilla cupcakes.

But next time… I’m using the white chocolate and marzipan fruit!

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