Boring breakfast cupcakes

Apricot-glazed almond cupcakes (Vegan Cupcakes)

Cuspcake rating: 2

A long weekend, during which I happily plan to pack in as many cupcake tryouts as I can.

First up, my second attempt from Vegan Cupcakes. Mine weren't vegan though, I used sour cream instead of soy yoghurt, which I can't find in my local super. Was tempted to replace the oil with brown butter but decided not to deviate too far from the recipe for a start. Also replaced almond essence with a little more vanilla and soy, as I have not been able to get organic essences and cannot stomach artificial almond flavours.

Wasn't too crazy about the cupcakes on first tasting, although I suppose they'd make a decent breakfast. They lack dimension. The almond meal in the cupcake batter is indiscernible, and the taste of soy milk was more obvious this time around. Of course this is probably because I didn't have almond essence. The baked-in apricot preserve filling is a nice surprise though, except the cupcake isn't flavourful enough to offer any contrast.

Since the cupcakes tasted of just soy and sugar, I added lemon juice instead of water to the glaze for some contrast, and topped with toasted sliced almonds. Ending up doubling the amount of glaze on each cupcake, and the end result was pleasant enough but forgettable, like eating any plain cupcake with apricot jam.

Disappointed since apricot and almonds promised to be such a great combination, but it just didn't come together. Will research other almond cupcake recipes and definitely seek out some almond essence. Suspect the omnivore in me will win out – I just feel like browned butter, slightly toasted almond meal, perhaps mixed with some ground hazelnuts, and milk might elevate this recipe to match my imagination – a buttery, fragrant, flavourful cake with a pleasant, grainy bite and surprise centre of sticky sour-sweet apricot.