Rich chocolate cupcakes filled and topped with an Amaretto and cherry buttercream frosting. These amaretto cupcakes make the perfect, unique treat for your next event, dinner, or Friday night.
Why You’ll Love These Amaretto Cupcakes
Quick and Easy: These cupcakes are adapted from my Best Chocolate Cupcake recipe for a reason. They are light, fluffy, and (everyone’s favorite word) moist. They take about 45 minutes from start to finish—including making the buttercream.
Fun & Unique Flavor: Ever had a black forest cake? This is kind of like that but in cupcake form and using Amaretto. Chocolate and cherry pair great with each other in general, but the Amaretto flavor gives these grown-up cupcakes a welcomed kick.
Jump to RecipeKey Ingredients
Buttermilk: Buttermilk gives these cupcakes their amazing texture. It also reacts with the baking soda, allowing the cupcakes to rise. Don’t have buttermilk? No worries. You can easily use any type of milk and combine it with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. You just need something that will help curdle the milk. This even works with non-dairy milk like almond milk or oat milk. I’ve used both and had no issues.
Amaretto: Amaretto is an almond liquor that tastes delicious with chocolate and cherry flavors. This recipe is actually inspired by an ice cream flavor I had that was the same flavors. It’s at Kroger. 10 out of 10 would recommend. 😉
Looking for more grown-up treats? Check out these Baileys Cupcakes or these RumChata cookies.
Chopped Maraschino Cherries & Cherry Juice: The chopped maraschino cherries (and cherry juice) added to the buttercream and filling provide an extra splash of cherry flavoring as well as give the buttercream a fun texture. Be sure to dice them fairly small otherwise you could have frosting issues. See note below about piping with chopped cherries in the frosting.
Have extra maraschino cherries? Try these Cherry Cordial cookies.
Variations & Substitutions
Milk: As mentioned, you can make your own buttermilk from any type of milk that you have in your fridge.
Alcohol-free version: The Amaretto can easily be removed and you have a few options:
- Simply remove it with no substitutions.
- Or, add 1 tsp of almond extract to the frosting. Combined with the cherry juice and chopped cherries, you’ll get basically the same flavor.
Amaretto Cupcakes Overview
The recipe is pretty straightforward when it comes to making the cupcakes. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and egg) and add to the dry ingredients. Add the hot water at the end.
Add hot water at the end. Adding hot water to the cake batter allows the cocoa powder to “bloom” (i.e. release all the chocolatey goodness) and gives a much richer and bolder chocolate flavor.
Bake at a low temperature. For these cupcakes, you want a flat top which is why these bake at only 300F. Fun fact: the hotter your oven, the more rise you will get on your cupcakes.
Filling the cupcakes: The easiest way to fill a cupcake is to cut a cone out of the top. Place your knife about 1 cm from the edge at a 45* angle. Move your knife around the edges, making a circle. Pull out the cone-shaped piece you just cut and trim off the pointed end, leaving a flat disc. Pipe some buttercream in the opening and place the disc on top. Then you’re good to frost the top!
Buttercream & Amaretto. Adding alcohol to frosting can make it very tricky to work with, often splitting the buttercream. Be sure your frosting is not too warm before adding the Amaretto. If you have to stick it in the fridge for a bit after blending, that’s fine. It can be finnicky, but if you continue to beat it, it will fix itself.
Frosting tips. If piping the frosting, be sure to use a tip that is large enough for the cherry pieces to come through. You don’t want it blocking the end or you’ll have a huge mess on your hands.
Cupcake Questions
These need to be kept in the fridge to keep the buttercream together.
Yep! You can either leave it out completely or swap it out for 1 tsp of almond extract.
Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. Check out this post on how to store cupcakes to learn how to keep your cupcakes fresh even longer.
Amaretto Cupcakes
Equipment
- electric mixer
- 2 mixing bowls
- 1 cupcake tin
- 12 cupcake liners
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 7 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup hot water
Amaretto Frosting
- 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp Amaretto*
- 1 tbsp cherry juice
- 1/8 cup chopped maraschino cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 °F. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate, large mixing bowl, mix together the buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Add the hot water last and mix. Batter will be thin.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, place 2 scoops of the batter in each cupcake tin (or 3/4 of the way full). Bake for 22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the frosting
- Beat the butter until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add the powdered sugar and beat another 3-4 minutes. Add the Amaretto, cherry juice, and chopped cherries at the very end and mix until combined.
Assembly
- Using a knife, cut a cone shape out the of the top of the cupcake. Cut off the excess cake so you have a flat disc. Fill the cupcake with the Amaretto frosting. Place the disco on top and press down to secure. Then frost the cupcake.
