Tuesday, May 29, 2007

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

One of the greatest things about living in California is the abundance of beautiful produce. Even the City of Pasadena has two farmers markets.If I'm looking for something special I'll make the drive out to the Santa Monica farmers market.This week, every vendor seemed to have the most beautiful looking raspberries.The raspberries were sweet, tart, and firm.Absolutely perfect.So, a perfect raspberry deserves a perfect cupcake.

I decided to make my cupcakes mini because I wanted to emphasize the raspberries.The recipe yields 8 cupcakes or 14-16 mini cupcakes.If you decide to go the mini route the bake time is 12-14 minutes.The recipe can be altered to suit a different berry, for example, you could use strawberries, blackberries or even cherries.Just use whatever fruit inspires you.





Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes:
1 stick of butter @ room temp.
3/4 cup of sugar
1 1/4 cup of flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs @ room temp.
1/4 cup of sour cream
1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
1/3 cup of white chocolate chunks


1.Preheat the oven to 350'F degrees.Line a muffin pan with 8 liners.Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2.Cream the butter & sugar until light and fluffy.Add the eggs one at a time.Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture.Add the sour cream & raspberry extract.Then stir in the chocolate chunks.
3.Divide the batter evenly among the liners and bake for 15-20 minutes, until done.

For the icing:
1/2 cup of cream cheese
1 cup of sifted powder sugar
1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of butter @ room temp.
A half pint of fresh raspberries
Enjoy!

17 comments:

Joe said...

Beautiful coloring on the frosting! I'd love to have one of those cupcakes.

Anonymous said...

Those are some of the most beautiful cupcakes I have ever seen! Gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Those look good enough to EAT!

Brilynn said...

Those really are perfect cupcakes, they're gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Oooo ... they look lovely!

Anonymous said...

Hi...i tried making this cupcake. the cake itself came out really good but the icing turned our gooey and not like icing and the color was not as pretty as yours...please help me im a beginner at baking :)

Gigi said...

Anon: I am sorry it took so long to get back. Sometimes due to humidity or other factors you may need more sugar than called for. The raspberries should have been pureed and strained through a sieve. Sometimes when the color is not exact, feel free to add a touch of gel food coloring to achieve the perfect raspberry color.I hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

I know this is really old, but I have been looking really hard for a white chocolate cupcake recipe but have a hard time finding any that work with the ingredients I always have on hand.
I was wondering, will this work without the raspberry extract, should I add anything in its place?
It doesn't say how much raspberry extract just "1/2" cups? tbsp?
Its a huge difference if I want to compensate with another liquid in its place.

Gigi said...

Anon: I'm sorry about that, it's actually (1/2) teaspoon of raspberry extract. The original recipe calls for vanilla, I just changed that out raspberry. You can pretty much use anything, vanilla, lemon, lime, coconut, or even orange extract. It's a very versatile recipe.

Unknown said...

All your cupcakes look so beautiful! I'm definitely going to give this recipe a go sometime.

L.Sila said...

I was wondering if in the recipe, the white chocolate could be substituted with dark chocolate instead. Or is the white chocolate integral to the entire process?

Gigi said...

Blogger Ninja,

The white chocolate is just my personal preference. I know a lot of people prefer dark chocolate and raspberry. I don't think changing out the white chocolate for dark will change the cake. It's a yellow cake ...which means milk/dark chocolate will work.

apparentlyjessy said...

Hello! I used this recipe and was really happy with it! I blogged about it on my blog :) My cupcakes certainly didn't come out as pretty as yours though!

Anonymous said...

Hi Gigi....i'm curious what tip you used to make the frosting look so beautiful on the white choc and rasp cupcakes? thanks!

Rosario said...

hello Gigi! I love all your cupcakes! I tried making these some time ago, and they were lovely!!
I had some problems with the icing though, I think this is because in my country cream cheese is not as thick, so, the icing could not be shaped with pastry bag. Do you think I could add some unflavored gelatin to give it more texture? I am afraid more sugar would make it far too sweet.
Congratulations on your blog and all your fantastic recipes!!
Thank you for sharing them with us!

Ro said...

Hello Gigi!!
I love your recipes and your blog! You are a true genious
I made the raspberry cupcakes for Christmas and they all adored them. The only problem was that the frosting was a bit runny so I had to soread it on top of the cupcakes. They were delicious all the same but I wanted to make them as beautiful as yours.I think this may be because cream cheese is different in my country, not as thick as yours. I was wondering if I could add unflavored gelatin to it to give it more consistency. What do you suggest?

thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes with us!!

Anonymous said...

I tried to make this into a cake. This was my first attempt at a home made cake ever, and I was a little nervous. The cake part turned out great, but the icing... I think the amounts need some changing. After creaming the cream cheese and butter together I added the vanilla and pureed raspberries. I only added 6oz instead of 8oz like you suggested. After adding the cup of powdered sugar it was still liquid. So I added another cup and another cup and another. I ended up adding powdered sugar until I ran out (about 6 cups later). It was still very runny, but not liquid so I made it work. Tasted amazing though. I think next time I will forgo the butter in the icing only add 3oz of raspberries and that should cut down on some of the sugar needed.
Thanks for the recipe :)