I have pretty much just stopped baking all together this summer. It's been hot and beautiful out and I just haven't been spending time inside baking. However, the last few weeks have been slightly cloudy and the other day Charlotte and I went into a baking frenzy. We made fresh italian bread and these-I wish I had taken pics of the bread because it was truly delicious. Anyway- I have this GIGANTIC bag of almonds in my fridge. I kinda am at a loss at what to do with this beside snack on them. So because of this I came up with the cupcake.
I took a heaping half cup of almonds (these are roasted and salted) and pounded them with a mallot. They went in a bowl with 1 1/2 sticks soft butter, 3 eggs, 1 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 1/2 cups AP flour, 1 cup milk and a little less then 1/2 cup of hazelnut syrup. (the kind you'd use for flavoring coffee) I beat them together and baked them at 375 for 18 minutes.
For the icing I used 1/2 stick softened butter, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, 1 tbsp clear vanilla extract, about 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream and about 2 cups powdered sugar. I topped the icing with more crushed almonds.
They came out awesome. The little bit of saltyness in the was great and the crunch throughout the cupcake was really nice. Here is a picture of Charlotte enjoying one and another of her sharing one with our dog Toby. Or as we like to call her, the Shruffenator!
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| Toby almost looks mean in this but she totally isn't. IT was literally like ok toby, one bite for you, one bite for me-too cute |
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| She got to all the icing before I could get a picture |
