So today I decided to give it a go with something completely *gasp* chocolate free. It's obscene, I know. But if you're going without chocolate, why not Lemon with Raspberry and Blackberry frosting? So I used a recipe from my Cake Mix Doctor recipe for the cupcakes and decided to use the berry frosting recipes a la Patisserie Natalie via Cake Spy. Aren't her photos just delightful? I had to try the frostings if only because they were SO pink!
So I got started on the cupcakes and with little fan fare. I think (in hindsight, I KNOW) I filled the cups too high. Dang. They ended up spreading and it look practically like a cake. I then decided to break off all of the spread part just for fun. Also because I was really frustrated with myself that I filled them up so high. So annoying. Later on I realized that I completely forgot to add sour cream. How did I forget an entire CUP of sour cream?! I don't know. The cupcakes ended up tasting fine, but I would have liked to see how they would have tasted with the sour cream, more pound cake ish I think.
Anyways, while those cooled I moved on to frosting. I loved that I got to make the berry sauce from fresh berries. So I did that on the stove and left them in the fridge to cool while I moved on to sifting the powdered sugar. For the record, I hate sifting. I think I hate my sifter though because it's a squeeze sifter which is just means that I run out of patience about 30 seconds into the sifting and end up tapping the sifter until the job is done. Really- I have no patience for the darn thing and find myself longing for my mom's sifter- as old as it is. :)
So I sifted and mixed it with the butter and it was a lovely level of creamy. Then i split the butter and proceeded to split the mixture and make the blackberry portion. After mixing the right amount, I tasted and it tasted like it was practically ALL butter. I ended up adding the extra blackberry mixture that I had and about 2 extra cups of sugar just to minimize the butter enough to taste like frosting. I was pretty bummed.
I learned my lesson and for the raspberry portion I started by taking out about 1/3 of the butter mixture before adding the fruit and powdered sugar. I still ended up adding about 1/2 cup more sugar, just to thicken it up a bit. It tasted really berry-y and delicious and I would probably just use the raspberry frosting next time. I think would actually like to retry the blackberry frosting and cut the butter.
All's well that ends well, and I'm just glad that they ended up tasting fine. I would do both of these recipes again though and I had fun :) Ooo, funny sidenote: I ended up using a wide smooth frosting tip when I piped them and my brother said it looked like Care Bear poop. That's just a wonderful visual! Hah! Enjoy your Care Bear poop cupcakes! :)
