Alysha’s recipe! 🙂

So usually my mom is the gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free queen. She makes my brother’s allergen-free food better than I do and as a result I usually let her handle those projects. But I certainly cannot allow her to bake her own birthday treat so I had to try my hand at eliminating soy and dairy while still making a tasty, moist, and fluffy cupcake. I think I succeed. What follows is the recipe for chocolate covered cherry cupcakes with a cherry cream center and a buttery chocolate frosting. Yum!

Cupcake Recipe

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 Earth Balance soy/dairy free buttery spread
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1  1/2 cup gluten/soy free flour
• 1  3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Vanilla milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a muffin tin (I used fancy cupcake liners with pretty designs but that is really up to you). In a medium bowl, cream the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the extracts. Combine the flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix it well. Last but not least, stir in the milk until the batter is smooth. Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Easy-peasy. I’ve never had such a simple recipe turn out so magical.

Cream filling recipe

This is a little harder. I’m more of a “by ear”… or rather by taste baker and I really only follow recipes for things like cakes. (even then I’m always modifying it) I used my heart and my tongue to make the cream filling and I’m sorry I can’t convey the exact recipe. But here is something close.I encourage you to play around with the recipe to find one that suits your taste buds.

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/8 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoons of maraschino cherry juice
• 8 or more maraschino cherries chopped to bits
• 1 vanilla pudding cup

Combine the cream and sugar. Whip the cream, whip it good. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir just until combined. You could add a dash of almond extract for a stronger cherry flavor.

Chocolate Frosting

Please see my note above about baking by taste. Same rule applies here. I make frosting by adding a little of this and a little of that. You can use whatever recipe you want but the key to mine is a dash of almond extract. Just a bit because you don’t want it to overpower the chocolate flavor. Here is what I used.

• Confectioners’ sugar
• Earth Balance soy/dairy free buttery spread
• A very little Almond Breeze Vanilla milk
• Hersey chocolate syrup
• A dash of almond extract

Once you have everything completed you need to take the center out of the cupcake but leave a cupcake cap to cover the hole. If you have the handy little device to do this it is much easier but you can cut a circle out of the center with a knife. Fill the center with the cherry cream filling and replace the cap. Frost and add a cherry on top!

Enjoy!