Love and Olive Oil

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Happy National Cupcake Day! When I heard that there was, indeed, a holiday honoring my favorite confection, I knew I had to celebrate. I had been scheming about making some white chocolate raspberry cupcakes for some time now, and figured what better time to put it to the test.

Despite a bit of a fiasco with the frosting (see: I broke my buttercream), and a bit of an ‘overflow’ issue with the cupcakes, these turned out quite well. We made half of them with the raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting, and left the other half unfilled but flavored the frosting with the remaining raspberry, to see which one we liked better. The filled cupcakes are definitely the winners.

If you’re brave I’d encourage you to try the fancy white chocolate buttercream that I attempted to do (supposedly not nearly as sweet as regular buttercream, but 10x as hard to make), but for the faint of heart and the cooked-sugar-phobes, these cupcakes are still plenty delicious with the good ole’ fashioned sugary sweet American buttercream.

I love the fact that these cupcakes look like the iconic cupcake with a cherry on top. Whenever you see a cute representation of a cupcake, they always look just like this. Always. It cracks me up that I actually made a cupcake that fit that cliche. Rarely do you ever see an actual cupcake with a cherry on top – so in this case, a raspberry will just have to do!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes.

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Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
4 ounces white chocolate, melted
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Filling:
8 ounces frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water

Frosting:
If you’re brave, try this recipe (and let me know how it turns out!). If you want something less complicated, use American buttercream, instructions below.

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup cream cheese or tofutti cream cheese
3 to 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, seeded, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon soymilk
6 ounces white chocolate, melted
12 fresh raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ËšF.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Slowly mix together melted chocolate and oil. Whisk together soy milk, coconut milk, lemon zest, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full – my cupcakes overflowed, so err on the under-filled side here). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make filling, combine frozen raspberries with water, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until raspberries begin to break down. Add 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixture and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing as much through as possible. Return strained mixture to heat once again. Add another tablespoon of cornstarch mixture, and bring to a simmer. If mixture still seems thin, add more cornstarch as necessary. It will thicken more upon cooling. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Cut out small cones from tops of cupcakes (holes should be approximately 1/2″ across and 1/2″ deep), saving removed cake. Fill holes with raspberry filling, and replace cake on top.

To make frosting, beat butter or margarine and cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add confectioner’s sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until creamy. Melt white chocolate as before, and mix in vanilla seeds or extract. Add to frosting and mix well. Add extract and soy milk, and beat until fluffy (add more sugar and/or soymilk if you need it, until you get the right texture). Generously pipe or spread onto filled cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a single fresh raspberry.

All images and text © / Love & Olive Oil

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16 Comments

  1. Just made these for a bridal shower. I am so excited! They were not difficult at all, however they look and taste like they came from a professional bakery. Thank you so much for the amazing recipe! I used a little bit of the filling on top of the icing, just under the raspberries. I can’t wait for everyone to try them!

  2. Good Afternoon!
    I just made these as a test run for a shower and the middles were sunken in when they finished cooking…any thoughts?

    • First I’d check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer, make sure it is accurate, as a too hot/too cold oven can both cause sunken cupcakes. If your oven is accurate, consider elevation. We’re at 600ft here in Nashville and anything much higher can definitely affect baking. Also make sure your baking powder/soda are fresh and still active.

      Hope that helps!

    • Thank you! We’re in California prob a little higher elevation…i bake pretty often and don’t seem to have a problem usually. The baking soda and powder were new :). If we’re at a higher elevation how should I adjust?

  3. i just made them for our new year lady’s night. they are tempting!
    i changed it a little and colored the icing with mushed raspberries. makes it taste more fruity.
    but still: BIG LIKE for this recipe!
    :)

  4. Concerned that there are no eggs in this recipe. This is not an issue?

  5. How long does it take to make ? is it easy ???

  6. I made the white chocolate icing and it was delicious!!! The icing doesn’t get as fluffy as other icings, but it was still a huge hit with all the girls who came over last night.

  7. just made these for a friend’s birthday and managed to silence 12 grown men for a short while. such a hit! thanks for a great recipe.

  8. I am making these for a wedding. My first attempt I replaced the coconut milk with more white chocolate (the groom doesn’t like coconut). The batter almost came out like a dough. The cupcakes were very dense and not as soft as I would have liked. When you took off the paper it would tear off some of the cake with it.
    So, I made them again. I replaced the soy milk and coconut milk with whole milk. I used 8 ounces of white chocolate. I left out the lemon zest (I couldn’t taste it in the first batch so I didn’t see the point in having it in there). I also sprayed the cupcake liner with cooking spray. I baked them for 25 minutes. They came out much lighter and fluffier. I was a little bummed that you can’t really tell that the cake has white chocolate in it. But over all it is still a good cake.
    The frosting is sooooo good. No need to change that. You can really taste the white chocolate in the frosting. Also, don’t use “white chips” because they are not real white chocolate. I bought a bag of 24% cocoa white chocolate chips at Whole Foods.
    For the raspberry filling I left out the lemon juice. It adds nothing to the flavor and raspberries are tart enough on their own. I used a melon baller to scoop out the cake.
    Everyone that I gave them to LOVED them.

  9. I’ve realized nothing makes me happier than posts about cupcakes. Okay maybe EATING cupcakes. These look great!

  10. Your cupcakes are pretty darn cute! I read your post about the “cooked” buttercream….I really am just going to try it as my youngest doesn’t really like American Buttercream and it drive me crazy that she’ll scrape off the icing or just won’t eat it!

    Good luck with your next try! And thanks for sharing the recipes!
    ~ingrid

  11. These look incredible!! I love the raspberry on top. Well done :)

  12. I didn’t know yesterday was cupcake day! What a great day – I’m sad I missed it!

  13. These are too cute! That frosting looks perfect :)

  14. Ah man, I didn’t even get my cupcake tree up this year. Those look so good, and cute! Which is totally important :)

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