Apricot Cherry Muffins (or Cupcakes)

For a birthday party on Friday, I was requested to make an interesting hearty muffin-like cupcake, rather than a plain, light and fluffy cupcake. Hence the chopped cherries and whole wheat flour for texture. The apricot flavor was subtle and you want to make sure you find some sweet delicious cherries, since I was tricked by cherries that looked tasty but were actually lackluster. I know this picture is terrible, but my kitchen has terrible light at night, which deterred me from taking further pictures of the end product. They looked like cute little lumpy muffins until I frosted them with my bourbon cream cheese icing. But you could easily skip the frosting and serve these as muffins for breakfast.

Apricot Cherry Muffins/Cupcakes
7 tbsp butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 cup apricot puree (about three apricots)
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pound of cherries, pitted and diced

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two muffin tins. Puree three apricots in a blender or food processor. Cream butter and sugar, and beat in honey, eggs, apricot puree, milk, and vanilla. Dump flour and baking powder on top and then stir to combine. Stir cherries into batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins. Add icing to serve them as cupcakes. I recommend bourbon cream cheese icing or lemon icing.