R is for Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes...

White chocolate mud cake with raspberry swirled through, topped with whipped cream and raspberry jam.

Now before we start can I first say sorry in advance, these cupcakes were a disaster! I was so excited about this weeks cupcakes. The plan was to make white chocolate mud cupcakes with raspberry swirled through it, top it with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream and then some white chocolate curls. Doesn't that sound good? Yeah I thought so too.

I taught myself a valuable lesson with these cupcakes, if you add too much liquid to cupcake batter you will end up of with horribly misshaped volcano looking thingys that can not leave the household unless you want to bring great shame upon your name. I should have added a few whole raspberries to each cupcake, but I didn't. Instead I thought it would be cool to mush up the raspberries and add a large tablespoon to each cupcake - this is not a good idea, don't do it. The cupcakes were so bad that I didn't even make my SMBC. Instead I picked out the best looking one, topped it with some whipped cream and raspberry jam and took my photo to record my disaster. The rest of the cupcakes were broken up put into a large bowl with some custard, strawberry jelly and whipped cream, and was made into a divine trifle. May I suggest you do this if you have any baking disasters - it was fabulous! Anyway I will now give you the recipe - proceed with caution...

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberries (adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly - Cupcakes)
Makes 16 cupcakes

250g unsalted butter, chopped
160g white chocolate
440g caster sugar
250ml milk
150g plain flour
150g self-raising flour
2 eggs
300g frozen raspberries, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius and line 2 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Transfer mixture to medium bowl; cool 15 minutes.
3. Whisk in sifted flours, then eggs. Divide mixture among cases.
4. Add 2 or 3 raspberries to each case - DON'T mush up the raspberries and swirl through like I did.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.
6. Top with whipped cream and raspberry jam, if desired.

The ratings?

1/10 - they tasted alright, but everything else about them was a complete disaster :(

And the winner is...

Raspberry

Tune in on Saturday to see the raspberrylicious creation!

Baking Mondays - ICE Entry: Soda Pop - Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

The magic ingredient in this month's Iron Cupcake Earth contest is soda pop or as we like to call it here in Australia - soft drink! My immediate thought was my favourite drink - a fire truck (lemonade and raspberry cordial)! So I made lemonade cupcakes with fresh raspberries in the middle of them then topped it with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream and then a dollop of lemon swiss meringue buttercream and a raspberry lolly. The result a very moist and tangy cupcake with a lovely sweet frosting. Here is one of the fire truck marvels:

The ratings?

Me - 7/10, loved the frosting combination - the lemon was awesome! The cake was very moist and extremely tangy - maybe a little too tangy.

Mat - 5/10, not a raspberry fan :P

And now the recipes...

Lemonade Raspberry Cupcakes
Makes 12

1/2 cup butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup lemonade
zest and juice of one lemon
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
24 fresh raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake liners.
   
2. Beat butter until fluffy.
   
3. Add the sugar and lemon zest and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl in between additions.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to the butter mixture and stir until combined.
6. Add the lemonade and lemon juice, and mix to combine.
7. Scoop mix into cupcake liners to two-thirds full. Inserting 2 fresh raspberries in each cupcake.
   
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
250g unsalted butter

1. Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
3. Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
4. Divide the SMBC into two bowls.
5. To make the raspberry swiss meringue buttercream add raspberry jam and a little red food colouring until you get the desired colour and flavour. Mix on medium speed until you get a good piping texture.
   
6. To make the lemon swiss meringue buttercream add lemon juice and a little yellow food colouring until you get the descired colour and flavour. Mix on medium speed until you get a good piping texture.
   

And this month we are competing for the following prizes:

• A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
• a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
  
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Voting will begin no later than Wednesday, April 29 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Monday, May 4 at 12 noon. But I will remind you of that later :).

Check out Iron Cupcake Earth at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com to become a part of the excitement!!

Baking Mondays - Vanilla Raspberry Cupcakes

I was a very slack blogger over the weekend - but I am back on the blogging wagon today because it is Baking Monday! I planned to make these cupcakes a week ago for Valentines day, but with our short trip back to Mildura I didn't get the time to go to the shops to get all of the necessary ingredients - so here they are a week late.

I used the recipe for Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes and was planning to swirl some raspberry flavoured syrup through it to give it that extra burst of raspberry flavour. However, when I opened the syrup jar and it didn't make that lovely 'pop' sound to say that it was fresh I knew that dream was over. So instead we just have plain vanilla cupcakes - and it was lucky that they turned out! When I had finished mixing the ingredients I thought the batter looked incredibly dry - so I reread the instructions and whoops I forgot to add the eggs! I blame it on my silly mummy brain, thankfully they still turned out okay.

For the raspberry butter cream I used the recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. However, I put in a full cup of raspberry jam and it wasn't seedless because apparently that doesn't exist in my local shopping centre. Also I only used five and a half cups of icing sugar.

So the ratings?

7/10 from both Mat and I - these are definitely yummy, but they don't blow your socks off or anything.