Twinberry Almond Ricotta Cupcakes

*Retro cupcakes*
Sometime last week, a good friend/colleague of mine was going on maternity leave, and we decided to have a little going away party for her. Rather than using a store bought cake, I decided to bake something cute. My quest for 'something cute' led me to Chockylit's cupcake blog. The minute I laid eyes on these almond ricotta cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, I had made up my mind, it had to be made the very same day.

I do not bake (from scratch) regularly, but her instructions were simple and the cupcakes came out looking beautiful, and needless to say everyone enjoyed it. Since my friend's having a boy, I made a batch of blueberry onese with blue frosting. Couldn't take a picture of those cos they got snapped up pretty quickly. So I baked a second batch with blueberries and raspberries. I made some slight alterations to her recipe, using less sugar and low fat alternatives. She had remarked in her post that she thought the original recipe was not as almondy as she would have liked, so I added a handful of slivered almonds to the batter, to give it that extra bite. The end result was awesome...everyone loved it!