Cranberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

Cupcake Ingredients:
-1 and 1/4 sticks of butter, softened
-1 C sugar
-2 eggs
-1 and 1/3 C AP flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-6 TB milk
-1 tsp almond extract plus 2 drops orange extract
-Dash of salt unless using salted butter
-3/4 to 1 C chopped fresh cranberries

Icing:
-1 C Crisco or equivalent amount of butter
-4 squares white candiquick or about 1 C white chocolate chips
-2 C powdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla

Optional filling: 3 big spoons full of Ocean Spray Whole Berry cranberry sauce mixed with 1 TB powdered sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar for the cupcakes together, then add the eggs and extracts and mix well.  Add in the remaining ingredients except the cranberries and mix well to incorporate.  Coat the cranberries in a little flour and add to the batter.

In an oven heated to 350F, bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes or until starting to turn golden.

While they are cooking, mix the Crisco or butter (whichever your preference and as needed to suit the temperature of where these cupcakes will be, let's face it butter can get a little soft) with 1 C powdered sugar and a little dash of water, and let it mix while you melt the chocolate in the microwave.

Add the chocolate to the icing base and let mix on a medium speed for about 3 minutes.  Add in the vanilla and the remaining sugar and let it whip for 5 to 7 minutes. 

I highly suggest coring the cupcakes and filling them with the filling mentioned above.  It really helped bring out the cranberry flavor.  I would also argue that you could cut the milk in half and add 3 TB of the cranberry sauce to the actual batter itself if you wanted them to be more obviously cranberry.  You could cook your cranberries down before adding them as well. 

Pipe some icing on the cupcakes and enjoy all the whippy-deliciousness as I have been calling it.  By leaving out the cranberries and changing the extracts, this recipe works well as a base recipe for a wide variety of cupcakes.  Alterations to this would be adding in some orange zest to the batter or sprinkling some on top of the cupcakes.

These are such a fun, and most importantly not overly sweet, addition to the holiday dessert varieties.  And I must say, the icing is quite delightful.  I will not judge you if you make a batch just to eat off the spoon.

The recipe made 18 cupcakes and just enough icing to cover them all with the large tip.  Feel free to increase the recipe by half to have a little wiggle room.  I would definitely do that the next time, just to be sure.

Happy crafting!

Remove the cupcakes from the oven when they are ready and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.  I cored the cupcakes and mixed