Brandied Cherry Cupcakes

I regularly follow the Cupcake Project, and that's where I discovered the idea to ship cupcakes in jars. I also was intrigued by her Brandied Cherry Cupcakes, which I made for Christmas.

I cannot explain why these cupcakes are blue, but they appear to be blueberry or blue-food coloring tinted, which I assure you they are not. They are pretty delicious, though. For my frosting, I just combined butter, powdered sugar and some extra cherry juice I had on hand. (P.S. This is the frosting I taught my goddaughter to eat straight from the piping bag by tilting her head back and saying "Aaaahhh!")

Brandied Cherry Cupcakes

Syrup:
2 15-ounce cans of cherries in heavy syrup
½ cup brandy

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer for fifteen minutes.

Use a sieve to strain out the cherries. Reserve both the syrup and cherries.

Cupcake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
Brandied cherry syrup from above
Brandied cherries from above

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

In another medium-sized bowl, beat butter, sugar, and honey until well combined. Beat eggs and milk into the butter mixture. Alternately fold the flour mixture and 2/3 cup of the cherry syrup into the wet ingredients. Fold in all of the brandied cherries.

Fill cupcake liners approximately 2/3 full. (I used 24 regular size and 6-9 mini ones for the extra batter.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.

Cool completely on wire racks, and then frost.