I can still remember the days of commercial jingles sticking in my head, sometimes for years. Who remembers the old Almond Joy commercials? I wondered today how long the candy bar has been around and, according to Wikipedia, the Almond Joy bar was introduced in 1946 as a replacement for the Dream Bar (created in 1936) that contained diced almonds with the coconut.
During the 1970s, the Peter Paul company used the jingle, “Sometimes you feel like a nut / Sometimes you don’t / Almond Joy’s got nuts / Mounds don’t,” to advertise Almond Joy and Mounds in tandem. In a play on words, the “feel like a nut” portion of the jingle was typically played over a clip of someone acting like a “nut”, i.e., engaged in an unconventional activity, such as riding on a horse backwards.
You’re singing it now, aren’t you? Anyway, Confessions of a Cookbook Queen took a chocolate cupcake, added a bit of almond extract to a gloriously rich buttercream frosting, and topped it all with coconut to give us Almond Joy in a cupcake. Just don’t act like a nut when baking a batch, wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.
Almond Joy Cupcakes
Cupcake Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder (I used Hershey Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut, for garnish
2. In the large bowl of a mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking
powder. Combine with a whisk. Add eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter. Mix on low for 30
seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and increase mixer speed to medium — beat for 2 minutes.
Batter will be thick (and yummy. not that I’d ever eat raw batter).
3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake cupcakes 15 – 20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly
touched.
4. While cupcakes bake, make your ganache: In a microwave safe bowl, combine chopped chocolate
and heavy cream. Microwave for a couple minutes, stopping to stir every 30 seconds. Once the
mixture is smooth, remove from microwave and stir in corn syrup. Place bowl in refrigerator until the ganache is thickened.
5. Prepare buttercream: In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter, almond extract and heavy cream on
medium speed until smooth and combined. Turn mixer speed to low and slowly add powdered
sugar until barely mixed in. Increase speed to high and beat for about a minute, until light and fluffy.
Frost cupcakes, top with a spoonful of ganache and coconut.