Saturday, April 3, 2010

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Spring is here!

And I finally got a new cord for my camera so we're back in business! To celebrate the come of warm weather and the return of updating this blog, I thought I'd get some spring-y flavors in the oven!



These are three flavors I've put together before and though they worked well, I knew I could do it better. Also I wanted to experiment with some better photography techniques in hope of getting these recipes up on TasteSpotting and FoodGawker.
I went a little overboa
rd in my methods but I couldn't help it! Yesterday at the supermarket I overheard a young girl and her mother panicking over the fact that on their shopping list was "chocolate ganache" but it wasn't something they could buy in a can. The daughter cried out "I don't know what to do! This is what she wanted on her cake and I don't want to disappoint her but I have no idea what I'd need to make it!" I decided it was my duty to save this young girl and stepped in, "All you need is butter, heavy cream and whatever chocolate you want to use" I said with a smile on my face. The two were delighted I'd stepped in, the mother even called me a baking angel! And by that, I justify today's overboard tactics.



Recipe
Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes (Makes 12 cupcakes)
1 1/4 Cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (not soda, there is a difference! I'll tell ya what if you're interested.)
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter at room temperature
1 large egg and 1 large egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1 carton raspberries
1 square white chocolate

1 tbsp lemon juice (I think... I just squirted some in there.)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter together until fluffy. Add egg and egg white one at a time and beat well on low after each addition, then beat in vanilla and lemon juice. Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Mix on low speed until no traces of flour remains. Finely chop one square of white chocolate and mix in.

Here's where I started going crazy... set aside 24 raspberries, 12 should be perfect cupcake topping specimens and the other 12 don't rea
lly matter. Crush the remaining berries and throw in a sauce pan on medium with 2 tablespoons water and little sugar. Once the juices start to come out (about 3 minutes) remove seeds, I did this with a coffee filter, it required a little squeezing but worked like a charm. Return juice to sauce pan and add a little more sugar. Bring to a boil until syrup is thickened (2-3 minutes). Allow to cool and mix into batter.

Divide batter evenly between cups. Take your 12 not-so-perfect raspberries and cut into thirds and place on the top of each filled cup. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Lemon Glaze
Lemon juice
Confectioners' sugar


Mix the two ingredients until desired consistency is reached. Poke a fork in the top of each cupcake. Lightly spread about a 1/4 tsp of glaze over each cupcake after cooled.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
12 oz Cream Cheese at room temperature
6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 Squares White Chocolate

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy (I added a little lemon juice here). Melt the white chocolate and mix in here. Gradually add the sugar and mix thoroughly to combine. It's really soft if you use it right away which I did, next time I would definitely refrigerate it for about 15 minutes first.

The Perfect Garnish
To top it all off, I melted the remaining white chocolate placed it in a plastic bag, cut a tiny hole in the corner and filled those 12 perfect raspberries that I set aside. The result, perfection.



The final product is pretty and super full of spring time! I makes me wish I'd saved a few raspberries to make some lemonade with. Well I hope you enjoy this recipe and the pretty pictures I took. Leave a comment if you love me and cross your fingers I can get this on TasteSpotting or FoodGawker!

Happy Spring Everyone!



Cheers!
Bailey