After posting a couple of hot and spicy dishes last week, I thought it was time share a sweet treat with you. I could not think of a better sweet treat then cupcakes.  Who doesn’t love a cupcake? Especially one as cute as this. And believe me, these soft buttermilk cupcakes with sweet cherry cream cheese frosting are just as good as they look.

Ryan and I planned to have a few friends over to celebrate the 4th of July. On Friday, while I was looking over everything I planned to serve, the one thing I realized we were missing was dessert. I know some may consider it blasphemy to forget such a thing, but it simply slipped my mind. Regardless, there was no denying it, I was serving spicy pepper steak so I definitely needed something sweet. Sure, I could have picked up some cookies or cupcakes at the store but that would have taken all the fun out of it. Instead, I made these little gems and they were the perfect ending to a delightful 4th of July BBQ.

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting
15m
Prep
20m
Cook
35m
Total

Servings

12

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup 1 stick butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
  • 12 cherries for garnish (if desired)
Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting
  • 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2-3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
  • 1/4 cup cherry preserves

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
  3. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, use a hand held mixer on medium speed to beat butter and granulated sugar together until creamy, about 3-4 minutes.
  5. Beat in egg whites and vanilla until combined, about 1-2 minutes.
  6. With the mixer on medium, beat in 1/3 of flour mixture. Once combined, beat in 1/3 of buttermilk. Continue alternating with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk.
  7. Spoon thick batter into cupcake liners. Fill each liner 2/3 of the way full.
  8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs on it.
  9. Allow to cool in cupcake tin for a couple of minutes. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
  10. To make the frosting, use a hand held mixer on medium speed, cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla.
  11. Gradually add in sugar. Beat until, thick but spreadable mixture. Fold in cherry preserves. Frosting will turn pink. Once combined, use to frost cupcakes.
  12. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, frost with cherry cream cheese frosting. Note: I used a piping bag, but if you don't have one you can place frosting in a large resealable bag with the corner snipped.
  13. Place 1 cherry on top of each cupcake.
★★★★★ 5.0 (3 reviews)
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Deseree

Whether it is cooking it, eating it, shopping for it or watching TV about it, food is one of my favorite things.

23 Reviews

  1. kim August 17, 2021

    Aloha where did you find those cute little cupcake liners? kim

  2. Cassandra May 28, 2019

    this not only disregarding my alergies, it also goes against all of my beliefs in the kitchen. I am distraught and ashamed that I took part in making this dessert. my apologies to those of you who didn’t care for it and my “What the Heck!?!” to those of you who did.

  3. Cassandra May 28, 2019

    this sucks!

  4. Mira L October 17, 2014

    The cupcakes look amazing and cherry butter cream is a great choice!

  5. Deseree June 24, 2013

    Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed them Shelley :)

  6. Shelley June 22, 2013

    I made these and they were AMAZING. Everyone was very impressed and I may or may not have had more than one.Thanks for this recipe, love your site. :-)

  7. Deseree August 2, 2012

    You could use marachino cherries but the frosting will probably be a bit sweeter.

  8. Brianne August 1, 2012

    could you just use cherries instead of the preserves for the icing? Like maraschino cherries in the jar

  9. Ciara June 18, 2012

    I’ve used this frosting recipe a couple times now and I love it. It is really good on chocolate cupcakes, too. This morning I whipped some up and had a lot of leftover frosting after decorating some cupcakes. I made some biscuits and spread this on top. SOOOOOOOOO good.

  10. The Curvy Carrot » Valentine Cake Truffles February 13, 2012

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  11. Deseree January 17, 2012

    Hi Irene, you can certainly sub jam for the preserves. Enjoy!

  12. Irene January 17, 2012

    Hi, these cupcakes look amazing, i wonder if i can substitute cherry jam for cherry preserves?

  13. Deseree July 5, 2011

    Hi Emily! I think you might need to increase it by half just to make sure that you have enough. Let me know how the cake turns out! :)

  14. Emily July 4, 2011

    Hi! I am looking forward to making this in cake form. Do you think the amount of icing in this recipe will be enough for a 2 layer round cake (8-9″)?

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    I’m glad that i found this amazing website.

  16. A little bit of this, a little bit of that « quilts, crafts and more from the little velociraptor. July 23, 2010
  17. Deseree August 17, 2009

    Hi Christine! Oooooh strawberry preserves. That sounds wonderful! I am glad everyone loved them. :)

  18. Christine August 17, 2009

    Hi Des! I tried these with strawberry preserves and everyone loved them! Thanks!

  19. finsmom July 9, 2009

    How gorgeous are these!!! So cute!

  20. Rachel Hope July 9, 2009

    These look delicious! I would love to use this as an Inspiration piece for my Sunday Cupcake Inspiration Challenge…you can see a previous challenge here: http://hopestampseternal.blogspot.com/2009/07/cupcake-inspiration-challenge-14.html

  21. Katrina July 8, 2009

    Yum! And love the cute cupcake liner!

  22. Renee July 7, 2009

    how cute it that?! :)

  23. Kim - Easy French Food July 6, 2009

    That’s just a darling photo.

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