Raspberry and Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcakes are perfect for any occasion and the best thing is, they are easy to make. This recipe combines raspberries and #chocolate...a classic combination. The #cupcake is a rich chocolate flavour, but still beautifully light and fluffy. In the centre there is some hidden coulis for extra flavour and it's topped off with #raspberry buttercream and other simple decorations.

Many of the cakes I make are for big occasions, colleagues' #birthdays and exam #celebrations so the decoration might sometimes look a little overwhelming if you are someone who prefers the baking to the decorating. With these cupcakes you can impress people with your skills with little effort at all!! All you need is a piping bag, a mat to drizzle chocolate shapes on and some shop bought #sprinkles and #waffles.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Happy Baking! x

Time: 2 ½-3 hrs

Serves 24.

For the cupcakes

300 g butter

275 g sugar

225 g flour

6 eggs

75 g cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

For the coulis

375 g raspberries

50 g sugar

1tbsp cornflour

For the icing

525 g icing sugar

300 g butter

A few spoonfuls of the raspberry coulis

To decorate

100 g white chocolate, melted

100 g dark chocolate, melted

Stroop waffles (cut into 6 sections each)

Fresh raspberries

Various sprinkles and/or freeze dried raspberries

1. Turn your oven to 180°C and put your cupcake cases into a cupcake/muffin tin.

2. Weigh out your flour and cocoa powder into a bowl.

3. Whisk together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add in your eggs, one at a time, adding a little of the flour/cocoa mix in between to prevent curdling.

5. Once combined, add the rest of the flour and cocoa along with the baking powder.

6. Using a teaspoon, put 1½ - 2 spoonfuls of mixture into each cupcake cake. This recipe will produce about 24 cupcakes.

7. Put in the oven for 12-15 minutes. They are ready when a fork comes out clean when put into the centre of the cupcake. Once ready, set aside to cool.

8. While your cakes are baking, put your raspberries, corn flour and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil and simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

9. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave and use a spoon to create chocolate decorations (see image below). Set aside to cool- I put mine in the freezer to make sure they didn’t break when assembling the cupcakes.

10. When the cakes have cooled, cut out a portion of the middle (you can also use a cupcake corer if you have one) to make a hole for the coulis.

11. Add the coulis, cut the top off the removed section and place back on top.

12. To make the buttercream, beat the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the raspberry coulis and whip again.

13. Pipe the buttercream onto your cupcakes.

14. Melt the dark chocolate and let it cool a little (but not set). Using a fork, drizzle over the top of each cupcake.

15. Add a waffle, white chocolate decoration, fresh raspberry and sprinkles to each of the cupcakes.

Cut a hole in the centre of the cupcake.

Cut off the top of the cupcake centre and replace once filled with coulis

Make white chocolate shapes to top your cupcakes

Make the buttercream by whipping together the butter, icing sugar and raspberry coulis

Your buttercream should be light and fluffy

Top each cupcake with the buttercream

Drizzle over dark chocolate before topping with the sprinkles, waffle, white chocolate and a fresh raspberry