Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes Recipe

While chocolate is delicious in its own right, it elevates to a whole new level of decadence when it's paired with raspberry. Recipe developer Hayley MacLean combines raspberry preserves with chocolate cake in a cupcake recipe she says is "rich and delicious, full of chocolatey goodness with a sweet and tangy raspberry center." She calls these chocolate raspberry cupcakes "the absolutely perfect treat to share with your loved ones for Valentine's Day!"

Yes, these cupcakes do take a little more time to bake from scratch than a doctored-up cake mix-based recipe would, but they can make for a great weekend baking project. After all, "nothing says lovin' like something from the oven," whether you're baking them for a partner, your kids, or your friends. In fact, you may even wish to bake a batch just for yourself. As MacLean suggests, they'd be "fantastic with a glass of your favorite champagne to help celebrate a special occasion!"

As these are from-scratch cupcakes, there's rather a lengthy ingredient list, but nothing on it is too hard to get. For the cake you'll need flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar (both granulated and brown), vegetable oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Raspberry preserves are used to fill the cupcakes and flavor the frosting, and the frosting itself is made from cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. If you'd like to go all-out, you can even finish the cupcakes off with some shaved chocolate.

The recipe can also stand a little tweaking, should you be so inclined. MacLean notes that "the raspberry in this recipe could be replaced with any kind of preserves that you like," suggesting strawberry, blackberry, or even orange marmalade. She also says that you can replace the vanilla with almond extract or use a combination of the two.

Start off by preheating the oven to 350 F and lining a standard-sized muffin pan with paper liners. Mix the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon salt. In a separate bowl, mix the sugars with the oil, eggs, milk, and 2 teaspoons of the vanilla. Mix the dry bowl contents into the wet bowl contents until they make a homogeneous batter, then fill the cupcake liners halfway up with the batter. Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

As the cupcakes bake you can get the frosting ready. Beat the butter and cream cheese together — it will help if both of these are at room temperature. Add the remaining vanilla, then add the powdered sugar very slowly so it doesn't fly all over the kitchen and make a mess. Mix in 2 to 3 tablespoons of preserves, depending on how colorful you want the frosting to be. Once finished, your frosting will have a beautiful pink hue to it.

Let the cupcakes cool completely before you frost them. The first step is to somehow inject a little raspberry preserves into the cupcakes. MacLean uses a piping bag and says to try to get about a teaspoon of jam into each cupcake. If you don't have a piping bag, you can just dig a little hole into the cupcake top and fill it up. No-one will see the hole, since you'll be covering it up with frosting as the next step. Once you've spread the frosting over each cupcake, they're now ready to eat, or you can sprinkle them with shaved chocolate if you like.

MacLean tells us the cupcakes should stay fresh for up to four days outside the fridge in an airtight container, adding that they should be good for a week in the fridge. You can also freeze them, of course, although MacLean advises "I would wait to frost them until after thawing." We hope you enjoy this sweet recipe!