Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

This is my first ever second entry into Iron Cupcake Earth!  How could a person only make one summer berry-themed cupcake?  For my second entry, I made a chocolate raspberry cupcake.

It is a chocolate cake made with raspberry jam, filled with raspberry whipped cream and frosted with chocolate ganache.

I’m not so sure about that purple liner, but that’s what I decided to use for these cupcakes!

I based the recipe on Nigella Lawson’s chocolate cherry cupcakes.  I’ve always loved those cupcakes, and thought that I could easily substitute raspberry jam for the cherry jam in this recipe.  I personally don’t think the raspberry taste was quite as noticeable as the cherry taste in the original recipe, but they’re still quite nice.

They’re quite sweet as well, so if you decide to make these, you may want to cut back a little on the amount of sugar, because the jam will have plenty of sugary goodness to make up for it.

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
• A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS
  
• A sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, 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; HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson; JESSIE STEELE APRONS ; TASTE OF HOME books; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Here are the recipes I used to make these cupcakes.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
125g soft unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g raspberry jam, seedless if desired
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan on the heat to melt. When nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Now add the raspberry jam, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon and when all is pretty well amalgamated stir in the flour.

Scrape and pour into the muffin papers in their tin and bake for 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

Cool cupcakes completely.  Fill cupcakes with raspberry whipped cream using the cone method.

Raspberry Whipped Cream
Adapted from Joy of Baking
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/4 cup lightly sweetened raspberry puree, strained if desired

Method
In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and beaters in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat only until soft peaks form. Add the sweetened raspberry puree a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.

If you have any leftover, use it as a topping for a cup of hot cocoa or mocha!

Ganache Frosting
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Makes enough to lightly frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
12 fresh raspberries, optional

Method
Break the chocolate for the icing into little pieces and add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and then whisk – by hand or electrically – till thick and smooth. Ice the cupcakes, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon, and stand a raspberry in the centre of each.