Sugared Toasted Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.
Ugh. You know what I really want to do right now?
BESIDES gorge on tacos and watch a Felicty marathon while simultaneously going on a shoe shopping spree.*
Face plant into this frosting.
According to my cousin, it tastes “like E.L. Fudge filling on crack.” Remember E.L. Fudge? Um hello my favorite store bought cookie… ever. Well, maybe. I don’t know. Need to think about this one for a second. Really I think I’m just partial to them because Mother Lovett always had a package in her cupboard that also housed really old, yellowed recipes on newspaper, a can of Nestea to which she’d put six freaking scoops in a quart to make iced tea so sweet it would hurt your teeth and two boxes of oatmeal cream pies. Which I hated. But sort of loved. Then couldn’t stand. Then liked. I never really made up my mind about those. But I’m pretty sure I just wanted to like them since everybody else did.
So goes the mind of a first born child.
I hate to say it… but I wasn’t always a fan of the almond cake. My mom used to love this almond torte from our local grocery store when I was growing up and I’d enjoy a slice, but that was it… just a slice. After one slice, I was good for another year or so because you know I pretty much live by the motto “give me chocolate or give me death.” Oh and add peanut butter in there too. I could’ve cared less about some dumb almond stuff.
And wedding cakes… well, I’ve only been to handful that had almond cake, and mine was not one of them. Because of course I had to have over-the-top chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling and white chocolate frosting and white chocolate curls. Because I’m the queen of excess!
It’s true.
It wasn’t until I learned about almond cake with chocolate frosting that I figured out where I had went wrong all those years… the icing. On the cake. Literally. White frosting is not my number #1 choice, so almond cake with white frosting didn’t cut it. However, right about now it sounds freaking delicious but I think that’s because I just ate pretzels for dinner. So there’s that.
But almond cake with CHOCOLATE frosting?
This I can get behind. And on top of. And in the middle of.
Sugared Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg white
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup milk
Frosting
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk, if needed
Sugared Toasted Almonds
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, egg white and sugar until smooth and combine. Gradually add melted butter while whisking constantly, then add in extracts. Stir in dry ingredients until well combined, then add in milk and stir until a smooth batter forms. Using a 1/4 cup measure or ice cream scoop, fill liners 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cupcakes are set. Let cool completely.
Frosting
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add in sugar and cocoa powder with the mixer on low, speeding up once combined. Add in extract and beat on medium, scraping down the sides if necessary, for 2-3 minutes. If frosting is too thick (I like mine thick), add milk 1 tablespoon at a time, beating for another minute or two to smooth it out. Repeat if necessary. If frosting isn’t thick enough to be spreadable, add a few spoonfuls of powdered sugar while beating until it thickens. Frost and top with sugared almonds below.
Sugared Toasted Almonds
- Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add almonds. Tossing and stirring constantly, toast for 1-2 minutes, just until almonds start to brown. Reduce heat to low and toss in sugar, stirring to coat. Stir constantly and cook for another minute, then remove and place almonds in a bowl. After a few minutes of cooling they will harden and you can break them apart and place on frosting.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
*someone please make this happen. puhlease.
98 Comments on “Sugared Toasted Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.”
My uncle worked for Keebler when I was a kid, so we were NEVER without EL Fudge cookies! The buttery cookie with the fudge frosting? AH so good. If you say this frosting is like that….I am making it like, now.
Hi there! I love your recipes. One question…can I use Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder for the frosting…is there a difference between that and unsweetened cocoa powder?
You definitely can use it for the frosting. I’m pretty sure the only difference between it and unsweetened is when it comes to baking – something about the dutch process not reacting with baking soda or powder… or something like that. But I’m no expert! In the frosting it will be fine. :)
Okay, I can’t be the only one here who now HAS to see a picture of your wedding cake. Sounds amazing with the white chocolate curls…
There is a pic of the cake in this post: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/07/the-how-sweet-wedding/
However I don’t think I have an actual picture of a cake slice! Sad.
You had me at tacos, Felicity, and shoe shopping spree :)
OMG! We had toasted almond cupcakes with choclate frosting for our wedding cupcake tower. To this day I still say they were the best cupcakes ever! We go back to the bakery that made them every year to get an anniversary cupcake. Maybe this year I should make my own!
Almond frosting is always my number one go to on a cake….I bet almond extract in the cupcakes is out of this world!
You totally have me with the frosting, but I just can’t handle almond extract. Like, it makes me gag every time I accidentally eat something with it in it. When we were doing cake tastings for our wedding, I came across a baker that had an awesome website, and I really wanted to have a tasting with her. She was about to have a baby so we couldn’t schedule a sit down tasting, but she did leave us a box filled with tiny cupcakes of nearly every cake flavor she offered. They were so absolutely gorgeous and so beautiful, I just couldn’t wait to try them! The first one I tried was a white cake with Swiss meringue made with almond extract (that I wasn’t aware of) and I about lost my cookies…er, cupcakes…anywho, then I noticed that nearly every cupcake was topped with this icing. I tapped out and let my fiance and my brother & sis-in-law (who were there b/c they never got to do a cake tasting for their wedding) and they devoured the rest. Sooooooo disappointing!
WOW, these look incredible…just gorgeous!
The icing looks devine, and I love that the cake to icing ration is almost 50/50!
Not only do I really really want one of these cupcakes right now, but I can totally see having a daily nut making adventure. Yum!
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Hi there!
Wow! Those cupcakes look delicious!
I’ve nominated you for the One Lovely Blog AWard! Here’s the link:
http://barbellsandbuttercream.com/2012/09/19/super-duper-thanks/
Best Wishes,
Andrea @ Barbells and Buttercream
These cupcakes have an excellent ratio of frosting to cupcake. Love the looks of the frosting, so rich!
Whhhattt if you say that this frosting tastes like the EL Fudge cookies than I am def making it. I plan on spooning it on everything.
you are too friggin CUTE! and i have been daydreaming about these babies since i read this post yesterday. planning on digging in soon. my tummy thanks you, my thighs do not. :P be blessed, my friend!
Oh my goooosh. These sound amazing! I love chocolate. And almonds. So together, they are like a match made in heaven. You are such an evil genius! P.S. you are probably the funniest food blogger I know.. I cannot EVER read one of your posts without laughing.
To this day I cannot decide if I like oatmeal creme pies or not. Your previous experience with almond cake is my candy corn, though. Three pieces until I realize I don’t actually like honey wax… and I seem to only be able to retain that memory for 364 days.
OMG. me too. every single year.
Okay, so I’m pretty much in love with you for this recipe. And for the Felicity reference. Now I need to see when that show airs here, so thanks for that! :)
Jess, you brought these over Sunday when we had just returned from a fabulous week in Wildwood Crest . . . THEY WERE SO DELICIOUS!!!! i ate three and poor Lacy only got one . . . Unfortunately, I had to go back to the 17 Day Diet the next day . . . THEY WERE FABULOUS!!!!
Your post has my mouth watering for these cupcakes. They look amazing. I love chocolate, I love chocolate frosting and I love almond cake. This is a perfect combination. I do not have a small muffin tin can I make mine in a regular tin? Thanks so much.
Kim
Yes – these are made in a regular muffin tin!
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These cupcakes look soooo tasty…I almost want to break my diet! :-) By the way…that wedding cake looked amazing!
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made these last night…they were ABSURDLY good…my sister is eating healthy and got mad at me for making them…she then said “if I am going to have one cupcake this month this will be it”…agreed…SO GOOD thank you!
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Hello all the way from Sri lanka. I have been following your blog for some time now and really love the stuff you make.
I need your advice … I tried this cup cake recipe… as i am in search for a good vanilla basses cup cake,,, when i took mine out of the oven… it looked just like yours…. but when i tried it ..i felt it had more of a muffin texture.. It was a bit hard. I followed the recipe to the dot. Can you pls let me know if your cup cake had the same texture or was it soft? or what might have gone wrong for it to be hard.
Love n hugs x
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is there a sub for almond extract or can i just omit it?
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Hi! I tried it today using margarine but it came out too runny and did not even cook. Then i tried it again because i thought i put too much milk on the first one. Then again for the third try, but i used butter this time, and it was perfect! Delish!! Thank you for this! :)
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Made these and loved them! I wanted to try and make them infused with alcohol, any suggestions on what and how much to use ?
Hi Jessica,
I’m hoping to make these for a friend’s birthday – chocolate covered almonds are her favourite treat! I was just wondering if you think the recipe would work as a cake rather than cupcakes?
Thanks!