Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Almond Frosting

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

I think my favorite part of these cupcakes is how elegant they look, even though the decorating is really easy! Also, no I will not stop making cupcakes with raspberries. I love raspberries.

Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

4 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used a Ghirardelli bar)

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla

24 large red raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time. Stir in the melted chocolate.

In another bowl, sift together flour and soda. Add alternately with buttermilk; add vanilla. Mix until just combined.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 13 minutes, turn, bake 13 minutes.

Warning: these cupcakes rise out, not up, so be careful not to overfill the baking cups. I ended up having the trim the edges off a bunch of the cupcakes because they were so overflowed. Also, the cupcakes are not very structurally sound when baked, so be gentle with them -- I lost two or three because they just fell apart while I was handling them.

Let cool.

When cool, use a small serrated knife or apple corer to cut a small hole in the center of each cupcake. Place a raspberry inside the hole.

Makes 24.

Icing/Decoration:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, soft

3 cups sifted xxx sugar

1 tbsp almond extract

chocolate syrup

24 red raspberries

24 chocolate chips

Beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and almond extract and beat until smooth. If the frosting is not yet the right consistency to pipe, you can add more sugar to stiffen it or a tablespoon of cream to make it softer.

Using a piping bag, pipe a spiral of frosting on top of each cupcake, covering the cored center.

Place a single chocolate chip inside each raspberry.

Drizzle chocolate syrup over frosted cupcakes so that it kind of runs down and gets in the grooves of the icing.

Place a raspberry on top of each.

This cupcake, like I said, looks fabulous for very little work, and the cupcake itself tastes delicious. However, the cake part is very fragile, and I think I might make a few adjustments to the recipe if I were to try it again. On the other hand, making the batter chocolate by stirring in the melted chocolate bar creates an amazing flavor, so definitely keep that part.

In terms of how many raspberries to buy, 48 of them is about what you'd expect to get out a pint box.

Adapted from The Baking Robot.

Raspberry Marble Cheesecakes with Graham Cracker Crust

Raspberry Marble Cheesecakes with Graham Cracker Crust

Crust:

1 1/2 cups fine ground graham crackers (if they come in one of those boxes with the three packets of about six crackers each? One packet is about right.)

3 tbsp melted butter

3 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix together the graham crackers, butter, and sugar. Press one tablespoon into the bottom of each of your cupcake liners. Bake for 5 minutes.

Raspberry:

6 oz fresh raspberries

2 tbsp sugar

Puree the raspberries in a food processor until smooth. Pass the puree through a fine sieve to strain out all the seeds; discard seeds. Mix the sugar into the raspberry puree.

Cupcakes:

2 lb cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

Beat the cream cheese until it's fluffy. I did not beat mine sufficiently, and there ended up being lumps in the finished batter. Don't be me!

Slowly pour in the sugar and continue to beat. Add vanilla.

Add eggs one at a time, beating until combined.

Spoon 1/4 cup of batter over each little crust. You can add more if you prefer a thicker cheesecake; it didn't affect the baking time for me. Put a small spoonful of raspberry over the batter, then swirl it into the batter with a toothpick or skewer. The picture to the right shows the process for this.

The recipe then asks you to take your tin and put it in a roasting pan, half filled with water, and bake like that. I wasn't sure why, so I did one batch as, and one just plain. The main difference that I saw was that the ones baked in water stayed puffier after they'd been taken out of the oven and didn't sink in the middles, but honestly it wasn't hugely significant? I'm not sure if it made a difference in overall moistness or something, but my conclusion was that you can if you want, but it's not vital.

Anyway, bake your cupcakes for 15 minutes, turn, and bake another 15 minutes (turning ensures wonderfully even baking). Remove from tins and place on wire racks to cool. Refrigerate after you're finished; cheesecake goes bad fast.

A final note: this recipe is a liar. It claimed to make 32 cupcakes; the actual result was around 45, and I ended up having to make another batch of crust. I would highly suggest halving the recipe so these suckers don't get gross before you can eat them all.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.