Today is my birthday! Great thing about birthdays is, of course…. the FOOD! You get to eat your favorite things, no one judges, nothing counts, and it gets to be all about you. And for me, those favorite things include this Raspberry Chocolate Cake.
I’m just rereading a post from my 2018 birthday, and I can’t help but think it’s no wonder I stayed single. The post talked all about how great my life was the way it was. And even went so far as to say adding a partner would be WORK and maybe NOT WORTH IT?!? Geez. I was dumb. Of course the Universe gave me exactly what I asked for. I just didn’t realize that I was putting an order in for Salmon when what I really wanted was Meatloaf. Well, life is amazing now, and for me, birthdays are just another reason to celebrate an amazing previous year, with the promise of an upcoming one that’s even better.
And seriously, I’m that girl that says no celebration is complete without CAKE. My very favorite cake–and the one I generally make for myself every year on my birthday–is chocolate raspberry. I love it. I can’t get enough of it. I seriously can only make it once a year because I eat the whole thing myself and get annoyed if anyone shares. (I’m getting better now it’s not just me in my life, I swear. Lol.)
For as long as I can remember, I have loved chocolate and raspberry together. And I’m pretty sure it’s because my mom used to make me these wonderful cakes for my birthday every year which were generally chocolate and raspberry (oh, and shaped like beautiful hats–my mom’s amazing). I even had a boyfriend that found out about my obsession and regularly bribed me out of being angry with him with a box of See’s raspberry truffles. ONLY raspberry truffles. It generally worked. But I digress.
Needless to say, chocolate and raspberry is one of my favorite combinations. It’s something about the tangy sourness of the raspberry combined with the tangy bitterness of dark chocolate that rounds out the flavor so nicely. Or, we could just be honest and say “It’s chocolate. Enough said.”
I used to only make full cakes with this recipe because I really want that jam. And frankly, cutting a cupcake in half, filling it like a cake, putting it back together, and frosting it seems like so. Much. Work. But not too long ago, I discovered the opportunity to put jam inside cupcakes with a large round frosting tip, and it pretty much changed my cupcake experience forever. And let’s be honest, cupcakes are freezable so instead of giving myself only one week, I can still horde them, but I can do it for a much longer period of time! Lol.
So, without further ado, Happy Birthday to Me! Enjoy some Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes in my honor. 😉
Happy Cooking!
- 1 cup boiling water
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- Large Jar Raspberry jam
- For the Frosting:
- 24 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
- 3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- Raspberries for Garnish
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Put 20-25 liners in a cupcake or muffin tin.***
- Whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl.
- Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture (batter may look curdled).
- Divide batter among liners
- Bake each pan separately 20 to 25 minutes total.
- Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes, then invert onto racks and cool completely.
- While cooling, make frosting.
- Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water. Turn off heat; stir occasionally until chocolate has melted completely, about 15 minutes. Set bowl on countertop, and let chocolate cool to room temperature, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine cocoa powder and boiling water in a small bowl; stir until cocoa is dissolved.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add melted chocolate; beat on low speed until combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in cocoa mixture.
- Use large filling tip with a bag full of raspberry jam and fill each cupcake.
- Use a large star tip and bag with frosting in it to decorate tops. Finish with a raspberry for garnish.
***I find one of the most fun things about cupcakes anymore can be the decorations and the liners. So while you can absolutely use a transparent liner to show off the deep chocolate color of the cake itself, I will be using these!
🙂 Feel free to purchase them here.
***You can find these original recipes here and here.
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