Cream Cheese Cranberry Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Buttercream

I have to say that these little blessings are the bestests, yummiest cupcakes that I have had to date! They are a mix of sweet cupcake and tart cranberry, just Perfect!! I sourced/adapted this recipe from Krissy's Creations.
The recipe asks for Cake Flour, and in New Zealand we can't buy cake flour off the shelf, so I had to make it myself. But don't freak out, its really easy to do.

So firstly let me tell you how to make the Cake Flour Sourced from Joy the Baker.
Ok, firstly measure out the amount of flour in the recipe you are using.
Then for every cup you use, take out 2 tablespoons of the flour and replace it with Cornflour. I sifted together 6 times just to make sure it was fully integrated together. Its a easy as that!!


Cupcake Ingredients - yeilds 24-30
205g unsalted butter
250g cream cheese
2 c sugar
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 c cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 c almond milk (I found this in Pak n Save)
2 c frozen cranberries (rolled in 1 tablespoon flour)

Preheat oven to 150° Fan Bake. (See "The Oven" tab on my blog before starting your oven).
In a bowl sift the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
In a mixer bowl beat the butter and cream cheese until buttery and creamy. Then add the sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and make sure you scrap down the bowl after each addition.
Mix in the almond and vanilla extract.
Then add half of the dry ingredients and half of the almond milk. Mix until combined. Repeat this adding the remainder of the dry ingredients and the almond milk. Mix until just combined.
And finally stir in the cranberries.
Divide the mixture between the cupcake liners, and bake in oven for about 15-18 minutes (depending on your oven).

Once the cake skewer comes out clean, the cupcakes are ready.

I always transfer them straight onto a wire rack to cool.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

250g cream cheese

100g butter

2-3 c icing sugar

2 teaspoons maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy and creamy. Start adding in the icing sugar and half of the maple syrup and half of the vanilla extract. Beat until mixed and creamy.

Then repeat adding the remainder of the maple syrup and vanilla extract. And the remainder of the icing sugar. You may need a little or less icing sugar, depending on the consistency you want.

Then pipe onto your cooled cupcakes.

I decorated the cupcakes with white chocolate heart shapes. Totally delicious and very eye catching.

Happy baking xxx