St. Nicholas Cupcakes

Greetings! This is another entry for my Christmas Series.  This particular recipe is my mother's favourite at Christmas.  It is our traditional, family recipe which we make every year.  I can't remember a Christmas when we didn't have this!  

It started as the St. Nicholas Cake.  It was made in a bundt pan and was decorated in the same way, with four sets of blossoms on top.  We started making the cupcakes about 5 years ago when cupcakes starting to get so popular!  I prefer them this way because they cook quite a bit faster (the cake would take almost an hour to cook), and they are easier to gobble up on Christmas Eve!  

This cake is very light, due to the 4 eggs in the recipe.  The almond extract adds such a unique and festive flavour.  I absolutely love this cake, and it isn't quite Christmas until the house smells like sweet almonds.

In other news, I think I am basically done all of my shopping for Christmas!  How about you guys?  



Ingredients:

Cake:

2 Cups White Flour
1 3/4 Cups White Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch  Salt
1 Cup Crisco Shortening
3/4 Cup Milk (Any kind will do, I used soy)
1 tsp Almond Extract
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 Eggs


Glaze:

1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
2 1/2 TB Warm Water

ALSO:  You will want to get some red and green glace cherries for the garnish!


Directions:

1)  Start by preheating your oven to 365 degrees.

2)  Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in your electric mixer.

3)  Add the shortening, milk and extracts and beat for 2 minutes.

4)  Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes.

5)  Fill greased cupcake liners 3/4 full.  Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  As always, if you notice your cupcakes getting too brown on top, place a greased sheet of foil over the top.  Crease the foil in the middle to make a tent so it does not stick to the cupcakes.

6)  While the cupcakes are cooling you can start the glaze.  Combine all of the ingredients in the mixer until it is smooth.

7)  Before you put the glaze on the cupcakes you will want to cut your cherries.  The red cherries get cut in half, and the green cherries get cut into 8 pieces, you will need 4 to make the leaves as shown here:

8)  Cover the cupcakes in the glaze, we took the liners off and placed the cupcakes upside down to see how that would look.  You can leave them in the liners if you would prefer!  Arrange the cherries as seen in the picture below, making sure the green leaves are all going in the same direction.  It is important to place the cherries before the glaze sets, otherwise when you put the cherries on the glaze will begin to crack.

 

9)  Enjoy!!  Only 14 more days until Christmas!  Yay!