Alrighty, so, as my last post will testify to, I’ve been doing a spot of baking this weekend.  With our first Sing Star night in months and months, I figured it was a perfect opportunity to do a little more baking practice.

Feed people sweet treats and they love you forever! 😉

I started with Becky’s Chocolate Guinness cake, but I’d seen this cupcake recipe on Pinterest and it spoke to me.  I simply HAD to make it (I guess that means I’m turning into an actual baker!)

It did involve a trip to H.E.B, I’ve never before bought, cooked, or eaten, real (fresh) raspberries, I needed various ‘extracts’, lemons and a few other bits and bobs.  But I have to say I was excited.

My only small concern was the buttercream frosting.  I’ve only made buttercream frosting once before (for the Baileys cupcakes) and it was a disaster.  Today, I was determined to make it go better – and better it went!

A few things –

1. The recipe doesn’t tell you roughly how many cupcakes it will make, because I’ve already baked pretty recently, and had a Guinness cake ready for our get together as well,  I decided to half the recipe.  I ended up with just over four and a half dozen mini-cupcakes (56).

2. The cupcakes sink a little when they come out of the oven.  When I opened the door of the oven and took them out, those that were a little ‘dome’ shaped, settled nicely into a flat-topped cupcake.  Those that came out flat, sank a little and were just shy of being perfect.  I used a table spoon to fill my cases, they took just under a full spoonful and that was pretty much perfect, I.E two thirds full.

3. I didn’t have a whisk (I used a fork), I didn’t have a sieve to strain my raspberries (so I didn’t – the frosting has seeds in it, but it’s so good that it doesn’t matter so much).

I made the frosting first, when I gave Col a taste, he said it was the best frosting I’ve made so far – he was right.  It was DELICIOUS!! Like Megan says in her post, you just want to tuck in to it with a spoon!! It’s absolutely gorgeous!

The cupcakes are such a wonderful compliment to the raspberry frosting, they’re light, fluffy and just the right amount of lemon-y.  The sweet and tart combo balance is just perfect!

These are, in my (and Col’s) opinion, the nicest cupcakes I’ve made to date and I’ll most DEFINITELY be making them again!

People at the ‘social gathering’, really liked them too – one of the big selling points was the fact they were bite-sized. I think I might stick with mini ones for Magz and Sam’s shower too and just double up on the number of them on the cake-stand!

I think you should make these cupcakes – now! Do it!!

The recipe:

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
lemon zest from two lemons
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tins by using liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Add the extracts and beat until combined. Add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed, then half of the milk-egg mixture. Repeat, ending by adding the final third of the flour mixture. Beat on medium for two minutes to ensure that the batter is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divde the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are are springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then continue cooling on wire rack.

Raspberry Buttercream
1/2 cup raspberries (blended into a puree and pushed through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds)
2 sticks unsalted butter,  at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of raspberry extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioner’s sugar
2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add extracts and raspberry puree and combine well. Add the sugar in increments and mix thoroughly after each addition. Add the cream, one tablespoon at a time, mixing on medium-high speed after each addition, until you reach the desired consistency.
*If you don’t have raspberry extract, simply add a little bit more raspberry puree until you reach your preferred level of raspberry flavor. If you add more puree, cut back on the milk.