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A Cupcake Confident in Its Own Skin
It’s rare to see a naked cupcake.
Most are crowned with billows of frosting: The higher the peaks, the more crowd-pleasing the result.
To make a cupcake without any gilding, drizzling or sugary swirling on top takes guts. It also takes a plan — how do you compete with all that opulent fluff when you’re in a more minimalist frame of mind?
Now, I have nothing against frosting. It’s just that not every cupcake needs it. There is a case to be made for a cupcake in which the cake itself is so tender and buttery that adding frosting would be overkill.
Take, for example, these mini almond cakes. Based on a classic flourless almond torte, they are velvety and moist, with a fine-textured crumb and a heady almond flavor. They also happen to be gluten-free, though without being obvious about it.
I have made them plain and simple, and, to my mind, they are fabulous, if a little severe in appearance.
For something fancier, though certainly more restrained than a mountain of buttercream, I’ve also made them filled with chocolate ganache as well as with cherry jam.
Of the two, adding a bittersweet chocolate ganache is a more sophisticated take. It adds a fudgy bite but isn’t the least bit cloying.
The cherry jam version is sweeter and brighter in flavor, but not over the top. I particularly love the combination of almonds and cherry, but any thick fruit jam will work, so choose your favorite. Just avoid jelly, which is too thin to remain distinct while baking, and will instead meld with the batter.
There is a trick to making the cakes so that the filling remains in the center without falling to the bottom of the pan and burning. Instead of filling the cakes before baking, I bake them for 10 minutes, then fill them. This allows the batter to set up enough to support the chocolate or jam. Note that ovens and muffin pans vary, so if you try this recipe and the filling still sinks and burns, next time, bake the cakes for another minute or two before adding the filling.
And if you absolutely can’t imagine a cupcake without icing, skip the filling and use the ganache to frost the cakes, doing so while the ganache is warm but the cakes have cooled. Just resist any buttercream urges. These darling cakes are buttery enough on their own.
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