Devil's Food Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This was going to be a layer cake for our Valentine's Day treat, but it didn't quite turn out as planned... Click here if you want to see what happened. So I tried again a couple days later and did cupcakes instead; they're harder to mess up. Cupcakes are fun, but for some reason I like doing layer cakes better. Maybe I just like the challenge of getting a cake to look purty.

This is one seriously tasty chocolate cake. It's not really difficult, but definitely takes a few more steps than dumping the ingredients into a bowl and mixing. The frosting has a lovely raspberry flavor, but the cream cheese flavor gets a little lost, so I think next time I will use a little more cream cheese and a little less butter. I'm not sure how I feel about having raspberry seeds in frosting, but it does look really nice. It was also very sweet, partly because I had my hubby pick up frozen raspberries for me and he got sweetened ones, and partly because I measured them by volume instead of weight, so it was too many raspberries and I had to use about 6 cups of powdered sugar. Now that I think about it, that's probably also why I couldn't taste the cream cheese.

For the Devi's Food Cake: (from the book A Passion For Baking by Marcy Goldman)

• 4oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 boiling water
• 1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 C firmly packed brown sugar
• 2/3 C white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and line two 9"round cake pans with parchment paper (grease the parchment too), or line 2 muffin tins with papers.

2. Place chopped chocolate and cocoa in a medium bowl and cover with boiling water. Stir to melt chocolate and then cool.

3. In a mixer bowl, cream butter and both sugars until fluffy and well combined- at least 2 minutes. Blend in eggs, vanilla, and then sour cream. Blend in cooled chocolate and then fold in flour, baking soda and salt.

4. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake until cake springs back when gently pressed with finger tips; 30-35 minutes for cake, 15-20 minutes for cupcakes. Cool in pans for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

For the Raspberry Cream Cream Cheese frosting: (from goodLife eats)

• 3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 C (40z) cream cheese, room temperature
• 3-4 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 6 oz (by weight, not volume) fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed and divided
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds only, or 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Add 1 C sugar and beat until smooth. Add half the raspberries and mix until combined. Add remaining powdered sugar, 1/2 C at a time and beat until well incorporated.

2. Add vanilla and remaining raspberries and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, (2-3 minutes) adding more powdered sugar if necessary to reach desired consistency.

3. Pipe or spread onto cooled cakes or cupcakes.

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

A pretty holiday treat.

Crazy Cake (for the cupcake)

• 3 C flour


• 2 C sugar


• 6 Tbsp cocoa powder


• 2 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp salt


• 1 tsp vanilla


• 3 Tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice


• 2 C water
  
• 2/3 C canola oil

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

Combine dry ingredients in the bowl of your electric mixer, or in a large mixing bowl if using a hand mixer. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds or until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.

Spoon into prepared pans, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pans about 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Yield: 3-4 dozen cupcakes

Chocolate Mint Buttercream

• 12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped


• 4 sticks butter, room temperature


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract


• 3 Tbsp milk


• 5 C powdered sugar
  

Place chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, and place bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth. Allow to cool

Cream butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Gradually add chocoalte and mix just until combined. Add extracts, milk, and powdered sugar. Beat until well combined and a smooth, creamy consistency, being careful not to over mix.

To finish cupcakes:

Pipe or spread frosting onto cupcakes and top with a sprinkle of crushed candy canes.

Crazy cake is a recipe that has been in my mom's family for years. I had thought it was unique, I'd never heard of using vinegar in a cake. I have recently seen similar recipes, though. It's not a super rich or chocolatey cake, but is moist and has a nice, tender texture. It's good paired with the super rich and creamy chocolate buttercream.

This frosting recipe came from Martha Stewart's website. It is the best chocolate frosting I've ever had! The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla, but I substituted 1/2 tsp of the vanilla for peppermint extract. You could use more if you like a stronger peppermint flavor. It makes a lot of frosting! You don't have to use semisweet chocolate. Any kind you like will be fine. I only had 8 oz of semisweet chocolate, so I used 4 oz of dark chocolate too. A half batch is plenty to fill and frost a double layer cake. For cupcakes, it's going to depend on how much frosting you like to use. I like to pipe frosting on cupcakes because it looks so pretty, but I don't pile it on super high. I made a full batch, and had about 2 cups of frosting left over after doing 36 cupcakes. I have yet to try it, but I have heard that it will freeze ok for a month or two. I just put it in the fridge, and will probably use it to make graham cracker sandwiches for my 3 year old.