Almond Mascarpone Cupcakes with Raspberries

I have lots of almond flour that I made and it seems like every time I have a chance I make macarons instead of anything else with almond flour.

Today though I decided to finally give it a shot.  I made Almond cupcakes instead of a cake, but I can totally see this as a cake. Utterly delicious. It is very light in texture and packed with nice almond flavor, don’t let me start on mascarpone cheese. It owns my heart. I love it.

 I  also doubled the amount of almond extract.

 

 

Almond Cupcakes(makes 12 standard cupcakes)

1stick butter/113grams

1cup blanched and ground almonds/almond flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1cup sugar

1/2tsp baking powder

1/4tsp salt

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp almond extract

6 large egg whites, at room temperature

 

Preheat oven to 350F

fit 12 cavity muffin pan with liners

 

Make Clarified Butter from 1stick of butter

Once you have clarified butter add vanilla and almond extract.Put aside

 

In a large bowl, sift together: almond flour, all purpose flour, 1/2cup sugar, baking powder, salt

 

Using a mixer whip the room temperature egg whites with a pinch of salt, until soft peaks are formed, gradually add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar until, stiff and glossy peaks are formed. Take care not to over beat the egg white or they will become dry.

 

Into the dry ingredients fold in about 1/3 of meringue, then gradually add warm(not hot) clarified butter, fold gently, and then continue folding in remaining meringue until you have a uniformed batter, don’t over mix it.

Fill your muffin pan and bake for about 16-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on the cooling rack.

 

1cup mascarpone cheese at room temperature

1/2cup powdered sugar

1stick of butter at room temperature

1/4tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

 

I prefer to stir mascarpone with room temperature butter, then I add powdered sugar and cinnamon. If using  mixer, try not to over beat it.

(You can also use mascarpone cheese alone if you’d like)

Pipe frosting on the top of cooled cupcakes, decorate with fresh raspberries.

 

 I decided to add a little 4th of July flare to these cupcakes, as you know I love royal icing butterflies and so here is my take on  Patriotic Royal Icing Butterflies

For a detail tutorial please refer to my tutorial 

 

 

Once my butterfly wings dried I used a star stencil to make little white stars.
How to make a stencil out of plastic sheet.