Boozy Amaretto Cupcakes

Ok, so it goes without saying that if you don't like amaretto, you won't like these cupcakes. However if, like me, you love amaretto, you have to try these!

I have to say though, the cakes themselves, whilst really lovely, moist and fluffy, weren't perfect. They rose really well, but it seemed as if the amaretto pretty much cooked out of them. Next time I might try a different recipe for the cake, because it was a bit bland, and use the same amaretto icing to see if it tastes better.

However, they still looked really cute and I chucked loads of amaretto in the icing to make up for it.

I decorated with little marzipan hearts coloured with a bit of red food colouring. It's not necessary to put pink food colouring in the icing, I just thought it looked pretty!

Anyway, here's the recipe for the cakes:

55ml Amaretto (but I tripled this and still barely a hint of amaretto!)

230g plain flour

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

170g unsalted butter

110ml buttermilk

170g soft brown sugar

• Preheat overn to 180C and line a muffin tray with paper cases
• Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and put aside
• Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in eggs one at a time
• Alternate adding 1/3 of the flour and the buttermilk, followed by 1/3 more of the flour and all of the amaretto. Beat well each time. 
• Fold in the last of the flour until smooth
• Spoon mixture into cupcake cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes.

Ingredients for the icing:

345g icing sugar

180g butter

Lashings of amaretto (recipe says 3tbsp but I poured until it tasted perfect!)

• Beat butter and sugar then add in amaretto (and food colouring if desired) until smooth and delicious. Then pipe!

Yum!