Ingredients:
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Add vanilla. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing just enough to combine. Turn off the mixer. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cherry juice for the icing, then dump the rest of the bottle of cherries and juice into the batter. Add the milk. Beat with the mixer until the cherries are a little chopped and the liquid is incorporated into the batter, but do not overmix. Fold in the walnuts.
Spoon the batter into the cupcake pans, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a tester inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely before icing the cakes with Cherry Frosting and topping with a cherry half and additional nuts, if desired.
Cherry Frosting:
Beat butter until very light. Beat in confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cherry juice. (If frosting is too thick to spread easily, add a little water or milk to thin it. If it is too thin, beat in additional confectioners' sugar.)
Notes:
Tip: Sprinkling the tops of the frosted cupcakes with chopped nuts makes them easier to stack on a serving plate, as the frosting is less likely to stick to upstairs-neighbor cakes.
Nutrition:
Per serving: 399 calories (percent of calories from fat, 37), 5 grams protein, 59 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 17 grams fat (9 grams saturated), 66 milligrams cholesterol, 221 milligrams sodium.