Raspberry Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin cups with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Beat in the egg, almond extract and raspberry syrup. At low speed, add one-half of the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Next add the milk and beat until incorporated. Then beat in the rest of the flour mixture. Do not overbeat. Fold in the chopped raspberries.

Fill the muffin cups about three-fourths full. Bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and place on a rack to cool completely. Spread ganache on cupcakes once cooled.

To make the ganache, put chocolate chips in a small bowl. Heat cream in a small heavy saucepan. Watch it carefully. Once it is simmering steadily, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate chips. Cover the bowl and let stand for 1 minute to melt the chips. Remove lid and stir until smooth. Once all lumps from the chocolate are gone, add the almond extract and stir until smooth. Let mixture sit at room temperature until it is of spreading consistency.

Once ganache has the consistency you want, spread it on top of each cupcake. (I like to leave a bit of the cupcake top exposed, so I do not spread the chocolate all the way to the edges of each cupcake.) Place a fresh raspberry in the center of each cupcake. Sprinkle chopped almond bits around the raspberry on top of the ganache.