Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Raspberries
These Cupcakes turned out really good and were very, very simple to make so I thought I would share them with you real quick.
So, a while back a sweet co-worker of mine gave me this awesome book, The Artful Cupcake. There are a lot of crazy-complicated cupcakes in this book and I will most likely never make all of them. But, while browsing through it for inspiration the other night, I found this manageable base-recipe for chocolate buttermilk cupcakes and a pretty frosting design idea. I happened to have a lot of buttermilk left over from my red velvet cheesecakes and a bag of Trader Joe's frozen raspberries. Crazy how it all falls into place sometimes.

Here's my adapted recipe:
Chocolate Buttermilk and Raspberry Cupcakes
(I was able to make 18 regular size cupcakes)
1/ 2/3 cup AP flour
1 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 sugar
1 cup buttermilk (This time I did use the real thing but, if you don't have it, let 1 cup regular milk sit with a couple tablespoons of lemon juice for 10 mins.)
1 egg
1/2 cup veggie oil
3 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Lavender sugar *optional*
 Cupcake Fun:
-Preheat oven to 350 and line your cupcake pan with pretty cupcake liners.
-Lightly break up the raspberries and toss with 1 tsp lavender sugar. Set aside.
-Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar together and whisk until completely mixed.
-Then add the buttermilk, veggie oil, and vanilla and blend well with an electric mixer.
-Fill cupcake liners about half way. Sprinkle raspberries into the batter and with a spoon lightly push them into the batter.
-Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean when stuck in the middle.
-Let cool before frosting.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8 oz package cream cheese, room temp
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted (or not)
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (for specks)
1/4 cup raspberry puree
 Frosting Fun:
-Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
-Add yogurt, sugar, vanillas, and raspberry puree
-Whip until creamy and light.

Chocolate Stripes:
5-6 tbs semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs butter
1 tbs light corn syrup (optional)
Chocolate Fun:
-Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a pot of 1 cup simmering water.
-Once chocolate and butter is melted, mix with a spatula until smooth and take off heat.
-Mix in corn syrup
-Let cool  for about 7 minutes and then fill a pastry bag with the chocolate and cut a small tip from the bag or use a small round piping tip. Pipe decorative stripes with the chocolate onto the frosted cupcakes.

 Now back to battling tuiles.
THE END!

7 comments:

Suze said...

YUM! I love the combo of choc/rasp and I think buttermilk gives almost any baked good a little 'something extra'...they look so cute too!

Linoleum Rose said...

love the frosting design. so cute.
XD

gilliebean said...

You make awesome cupcakes!! I just made gluten-free cupcakes. They were Blueberry Green-Tea with Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting. Yummy, but kinda bland - because I didn't put enough sweet in there. Gotta not be afraid of the sweet, eh? ;)

Jane said...

When I saw this combination of delights the other day, I just swooned! You come up with the most ingenious ideas--write a cookbook!!!!
You and Sean could team up and make it a comiccookbook.

Ivy said...

Gilliebean-I am with you on the sugar thing. I always put AT LEAST25% less sugar than a recipe asks for in cake recipes and for frosting, I reduce it usually by 65%. I don't think I am as anti-sugar as you are though. :)

Unknown said...

Mmmm, chocolate and raspberry! Such a great combination! Does using buttermilk make a big difference? Another great job, another sigh that I'm not down the street from you anymore (though it's very exciting to be here in NY). I'm glad you've had some time to enjoy yourself in the kitchen.

Lisa said...

Pretty cupcakes! What a great summer flavor combination. And your chocolate stripes are a nice finishing touch.