Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

These Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes came together using components from a few of my favorite recipes. The cake itself is the Cream Cheese Pound Cake that I made for Mother’s Day and the frosting is a slightly modified version of Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMB) which is one of my ‘go to’ recipes for frosting. I’m in major love with SMB, it’s so silky smooth that it pipes beautifully to decorate cakes and cupcakes and it can be modified for nearly any flavor. White chocolate is a subtle flavor, and it works really well in SMB.

The downside of SMB is that it isn’t very resilient in hot weather. Fortunately the weather at the wedding was perfect, the frosting held up well, and the cupcakes were beautiful with the fresh raspberries and white chocolate curls.

Like the Lemon-Blueberry Cupcakes, Organic Valley generously provided the dairy products that I used for these cupcakes. Between the cream cheese, butter and eggs in the cake batter and all the butter and eggs in the frosting, it was wonderful to be baking with such delicious, high quality products!

Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt

16 oz. raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. cornstarch
Squeeze of lemon juice

6 oz. white chocolate
4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temp and cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place cupcake liners in the cupcake pan.
Beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Pour in the sugar and beat on high until light and airy, at least 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, using the whisk attachment on the mixer. Beat after each addition and scrap the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts. Stir in the flour and salt until combined.
Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into each cupcake liner. Bake for about 25-28 minutes until the top of the cupcake is very light brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
While the cupcakes are baking, you can make the raspberry filling. Start by combining the raspberries and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Whisk the water and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth. When the berries have started to boil, stir in the cornstarch. Allow to boil for a few minutes until thick. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Once the filling has cooled, cut a core out of each cupcake and spoon in about 2 teaspoons of filling in each cupcake.
To make the frosting, chop the white chocolate and then melt it over a double boiler. Set it aside to cool slightly.
In a double boiler, whisk the egg whites and sugar together, I use the bowl from my Kitchen Aid for this step. Heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat and use an electric mixer with the whisk attachment to beat the eggs until they are fluffy and hold stiff peaks, about 6 minutes.
On a medium-low speed, add the salt and butter a few pieces at a time. Once all the butter is added, turn the mixer on high and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the cooled white chocolate mixture and mix until combined.

Makes: About 30 cupcakes