Almond Raspberry Cupcakes

This is a very easy recipe to follow and the almond and raspberry cupcakes are perfect served for morning or afternoon tea.

Cake
200g butter
1 tspn vanilla essence
1 1/4 cups (275g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (150g) plain flour
2/3 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup (60g) packaged ground almonds
160g frozen raspberries

Almond Topping
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
2 tblspns caster sugar
1 tspn ground ginger
40g butter, chopped
1/4 cup (20g) flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 160C (325F).

2. Place cupcake liners in tray.

3. Cream butter, essence and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in eggs, one at a time and beat until combined.

5. Stir in sifted flours and ground almonds.

6. Spoon mixture into cupcake trays.

7. Top mixture with frozen raspberries and sprinkle with almond topping.

8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

9. Stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Topping

1. Sift flour and ginger into a bowl. Add sugar.

2. Rub in butter and stir in almonds.

I have sometimes used mixed berries, instead of just raspberries, if that's all I have in the freezer. It is a very stiff batter so you need to push the berries into the mixture.

These cupcakes seem to taste even better the next day.