Raspberries and cream cupcakes

Raspberries and cream cupcake.

I had a request for some cupcakes this week - raspberries and cream for my brother-in-law-to be. They're the kind of flavours he likes and it's one of my favourite recipes. 

They're not overly complicated to make. Take a basic butter / vanilla cupcake recipe and thrown in a handful of raspberries once you've made the batter. Frozen ones work well as they're either brittle (frozen) or soggy (defrosted). They break down quickly when beaten. 

Set aside a dozen raspberries with decent colour and form, and place on paper towels to defrost and dry. 

After you've removed your cakes from the oven, allow them to cool a little, then use a sharp knife to scoop out a raspberry-sized hole in the top of each. I find a steak knife is good for this. 

At this point you can enact some quality-control by eating the pieces of cake you remove. This is the cupcake equivalent of donut holes. 

Place a raspberry in each cupcake. This will mean that when you bite into the cake, you'll get a burst of tart sweetness below the creamy icing. 

Secret raspberries.

The main problem I have with these sort of cakes is that too much fruit means that the paper cases will start to separate from the cupcakes. This also means that they taste amazing. It's really a fine balance - aesthetics versus taste. First world problem.

Once you've got your secret raspberries in place, go ahead and ice them with some buttercream. I've only decorated these with glitter, but of course you can add sprinkles, raspberry lollies or whatever you like!

I quite like the simplicity of plain cream icing : ) 

Buttery, glittery cupcakes.