Almond Pecan Cupcakes with Maple Butter Cream Frosting

This was a cupcake I made out of stuff I had in my freezer. I had a lot of maple syrup and a package of pecans so i thought the flavors would come together well in a cake. I made a yellow cake :
3/4 cups butter softened
3 eggs
2 1/12 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/12 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp almond extract
Beat the butter and add in the sugar, almond, and then eggs. Beat till fluffy. Then alternate your milk and dry ingredients and mix till incorporated.


Then I crushed 1/4 cup of pecans and toasted them in a skillet till I could smell them.
I poured the cake batter in until halfway up the tin. Sprinkled in some toasted, chopped pecans and then covered with more batter. I baked these at 375 for about 18 minutes and then let cool for about an hour. This made about 18 cupcakes.
For the butter cream:
I creamed together 1 1/2 sticks of softened butter with about 2 cups of powdered sugar. Slowly add the sugar and taste as you go so you get it to the sweetness you like. Then i added in 3 tbsp of really good maple syrup. Beat everything together till its all creamy. Then I piped the frosting onto the cakes and topped with more of my toasted pecans. They were delicious and the crunch in the center made them very good texture wise. I have to say too, I mentioned that this cupcake obsession started with me wanting to be able to make a good frosting. This butter cream was the best butter cream i had ever made!