Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake papers in muffin tin.

cake

• Mix cake mix, cherry pie filling, eggs, and almond extract until just combined; do not overmix. Divide the batter into 24 muffin tins lined with cupcake papers and bake for 18 minutes.
• Cake: Mix cake mix, cherry pie filling, eggs, and almond extract together until just combined do not over mix. Divide into 24 muffin tins lined with cupcake papers and bake for 18 minutes.

ganache

• Heat milk, butter, and sugar over medium low heat, heat until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted, Do Not let mixture come to a boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, whisk until smooth. Spoon ganache immediately over warm cupcakes, allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

frosting

• in a small saucepan whisk together flour and milk over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. It should be pretty thick like oatmeal, only smooth.
• Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. MUST be completely cool before moving on to next step.
• Using a spatula or a hand mixer add vanilla.
• In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes. Make sure to beat until there is no longer any graininess left from the sugar. Needs to be completely smooth.
• Add the flour, milk, vanilla mixture to the butter sugar mixture. Beat it till it is white and fluffy like whipping cream. If t separates, keep beating it until it comes together and is very fluffy and white.
• Add in chopped maraschino cherries and blend until frosting is pink and fluffy with little speckles from the cherries.
• If you have a piping bag add frosting to it and squeeze a dollop of frosting on top of each ganache covered cupcake. If you don't have a piping bag a zip-loc bag with a corner clipped works too!