Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes

Cooking for me is sometimes like those choose your own adventure books from back in the day... I never seem to end up quite where I thought I was going to. I had elaborate plans to fill these cupcakes with a raspberry chocolate ganache to make them extra fancy, but due to my son I didn't really have time for all that. So, instead, I topped them with a chocolate buttercream frosting and called them good... I didn't get any complaints.

Christie's sister Heidi was in town for her birthday to do some shopping with a friend, so I thought I'd make something easy instead of a regular cake... but those that know me, know that nothing I produce in my kitchen is ever "easy". Even if it's just mac and cheese or something of that nature, it always turns out to be some big production... mac and cheese is good, but mac and cheese with three different cheeses and some nice smoked bacon is better.

Anyhow, these cupcakes turned out nicely and could easily be passed off as a muffin if served without any frosting... but I'm always looking for a reason to add some more chocolate to my diet. I'll have to make them again sometime when I've got the time to make them as I had intended, but until then the recipe is as follows...

For the Cupcakes:

1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs separated (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1 15 Oz. can of raspberries in heavy syrup (such as Oregon Fruit brand) strained and juice reserved (approx. 2/3 cup juice).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line muffin tins. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cupcakes.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 4 or 5 minutes). Add two egg yolks and mix for an additional minute. Add remaining egg yolks and mix for an additional minute.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine milk, vanilla and raspberry juice. Alternate between adding dry ingredients and liquid ingredients to the butter mixture, a little bit at a time.

In small bowl, beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula, add about 1/2 cup of the egg whites to the mixture and fold in gently, to separate and lighten the batter. Add remaining egg whites and fold in gently until no white streaks are present.

Fold in raspberries.

Fill baking cups 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake for approximately 18 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, finish cooling on a rack.

For the Frosting:

6 tbsp. butter
1 cup powered sugar
2 tsp. cocoa
2 to 3 tbsp. milk

1. Cream butter. 2. Combine sugar and cocoa. 3. Add sugar and cocoa mixture to butter 4. Add milk to and butter mixture. Start with 2 tbsp. of milk and if it's too thick add another tbsp. of milk.

Adapted from: Tofu and Cupcakes, December 2008

Coming Soon: Emeril's Apple and Cranberry Crisp