Raspberry Cupcakes and the new raspberricupcakes.com!

Hello! You may have noticed some changes on the blog in the past week. I've finally got my act together and moved my blog to a custom domain! I'm still cleaning up a little bit here and there but you can now officially find this blog at www.raspberricupcakes.com! All the old URLs should redirect to the new domain, but please go ahead and update any links and bookmarks. Along with this change I also have an adorable new banner designed again by the lovely Lisa from spicyicecream. She's a star! It's been almost exactly a year since she designed Neville the angry cupcake for me, and while it was difficult to let him go (he's still in the favicon!) I love the new, cleaner layout. It also means I can post bigger photos! And to celebrate, I made a batch of raspberry cupcakes.

There are a few other small changes; you can now subscribe to my blog via email. I know a couple of readers were asking for this feature, so I hope it works! You might also notice the new navigation panel up the top where I finally moved the recipe index to its own page. I'll get around to finishing the other pages up there at some point. Please feel free to let me know if you find any issues with the new layout, I'm totally useless at this kind of stuff (apparently a degree in Computer Engineering does not prepare you for having a blog in any way). But it was definitely time for a change! There's no particular milestone that I can associate it with, other than a few cool things like reaching 300 posts not long ago and the main URL reaching 1000 Facebook 'likes' (but obviously the counter on the sidebar got reset to zero when I updated the button to point to the new URL, what a bummer!). I'm still not going to start a facebook page for the blog, I am way too lazy to maintain it. Look how long it took me to get around to making these changes! I hope you like the new look and will keep coming back to visit :)

So with that housekeeping out of the way, let's talk about these cupcakes. I wanted to revamp my 'raspberry cupcake' recipe, since the photos from the old version are so meh (though the recipe is not, I love those flavours). I also really wanted to try David Lebovitz's recipe for Devil's Food Cake after hearing Karen rave about it. I ended up making Devil's Food Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream. Insanely delicious. I used the Swiss Meringue Buttercream which I made for my Peach Melba Macarons and it worked like a charm. The sweet, creamy icing was just right for the dark, moist chocolate cake. The cake is so good, I knew it would be before it even finished baking because the raw batter looked luscious and tasted amazing already (I think Karen might have mentioned that too). Since it was my first time using the recipe, I underestimated how much the cake would expand, so filling the cupcake papers 3/4 full like I do for some other recipes was wayyy to much and it spilled over and didn't look as pretty as I had hoped. But they were still salvagable!

The buttercream took longer than I remembered to whip to the right consistency, I always have that stage where the Swiss Meringue buttercream splits, but eventually it smoothes out to that beautiful airy, buttery texture. I don't think I would be bothered to do the Swiss meringue buttercream if I didn't have my KitchenAid, so I totally understand if you try this recipe with a regular butter icing version. My cupcakes were all nicely piped and topped with fresh raspberry (ridiculously expensive since they're out of season but worth it just for the photos, thanks again Lisa! I told you she was a star.), then I arranged them just like they look below and I picked up my brand new camera to take the first shot when my fingers slipped and my camera dropped to the ground, right on top of two perfectly iced cupcakes. THE HORROR. Buttercream everywhere. Sooo if the icing on a couple of these cupcakes looks a bit iffy, it's because I had to scrape it off and repipe it! Luckily the camera seems to be okay. But you'd be right to guess that there was a lot of panicked shrieking and swearing.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream
(Makes about 15-20 cupcakes, adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe)
9 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch-process)
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-raising, I just used plain flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup strong coffee (or water)
1/2 cup whole or low-fat milk

For the Swiss Meringue Raspberry Buttercream:
4 large egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
250g (about 1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (and thawed) raspberries
Optional: fresh or frozen extra raspberries to decorate
(If you're new to making Swiss meringue buttercream, these wonderful tutorials from two of my favourite bloggers will help troubleshoot any problems you might have)

Line cupcake tray with cupcake papers and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients. Spoon into cupcake cases, filling about 1/2 full (cake will rise quite a bit). Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in tin about 5 mins, then place on a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

To prepare the raspberry buttercream, puree raspberries, strain to remove seeds and set aside. Whisk together egg white and sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Clip a candy thermometer to side of bowl. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk until mixture reaches 160°F and sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.

With a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg white mixture on high speed until cooled and thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. If mixture is runny at this point, refrigerate for 10 minutes and then continue beating until it starts to hold its shape (this can take a while). Beat in raspberry puree and vanilla. Place in a piping bag and ice cupcakes. Top with a fresh raspberry and serve immediately. Can be stored in an airtight container for a couple days.