Fresh Apricot Cupcakes

This is one of the rare moments in my experimental baking that a seemingly good idea actually turns out great. It started from a pile small California apricots I saw at the supermarket. They looked so pretty I couldn't help but bought about 2 pounds of them. At home, I bit into one and almost spit it out. They were so tart I decided it's humanly impossible to eat them without sugar. So I decided to make cupcakes.



I wanted to preserve the tartness somewhat and decided to use only three-quarter amount of sugar I usually put in a batch of cupcakes. For the frosting, I decided on cream cheese which always works well with tart/fruity cupcakes.



I pretty much followed this Lemon Blueberry Cake recipe except I:

1. used 3 cups of all purpose flour


2. added only 1 1/2 cups of sugar


3. omitted lemon juice and peel


4. substituted chopped s small apricots for 2 1/2 cups of blueberries


5. baked in lined muffin pan for 22 minutes at 350 degrees

For the frosting I beat a stick of butter with a package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of confectioner sugar and 1/2 cup of apricot preserve.



I really love the resulting cupcakes. As usual, since this has been my favorite fruity cupcake recipe, the cakes are soft, tender and exploded with fruit. You can tell they are made from apricots, not only because they are orange, but they are tart and full of flavor.