Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes & a Playlist!

Hey friends! Stopping in today with a sweet treat for your tummy and some sweet tunes for your ears!

Hope y’all had a lovely Valentines day! Mine was spent cooking up a meal for my family, Stuffed Chicken Marsala (which is pretty much the best thing in the world, let me tell ya! Will share recipe soon!) and baking chocolate raspberry cupcakes! Whatever your opinion of Valentines Day is it’s definitely a great excuse to bake something yummy and evil, no? Well that’s my philosophy anyway! :D

I got the idea for these cupcakes the night before and thought they’d make the perfect Valentines treat. Plus, I wanted an excuse to use my cute V-day cupcake liners. I made chocolate cupcakes, using Hershey’s recipe because in my opinion, you just can’t beat it, made some raspberry whipped cream to fill them, and fluffy pink buttercream frosting to top them off. They were so delish, if I do say so myself! I mean you just can’t go wrong with the chocolate & raspberry combo, a match made in heaven.

I also got a little fancy schmancy thanks to Pinterest and tried my hand at making little chocolate hearts and “xo’s” for decorations. They were seriously so easy and fun to make. Will definitely be doing more of this in the future. Hope you give these babies a try!

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes -

This raspberry whipped cream is so light and fluffy! You could use store bought whipped cream and fold in the raspberry juice if you want but really there’s just nothing like homemade whipped cream. Plus it takes hardly anytime at all, it’s definitely worth it! Could seriously eat this by the spoonful! 

Cupcakes -

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into lined cupcake pan.

Bake 16-18 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cool completely.

Raspberry Whipped Cream Filling -

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 small pkg. frozen raspberries (thawed)

Directions:

Place the powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the cream and vanilla. Using a metal whisk or an electric hand mixer, whisk the cream just until stiff peaks begin to form. Fold in juice from raspberries. I wasn’t exact on the measurements here, I just added in enough juice to where it had the raspberry taste and color I wanted. You could add the raspberries as well but I just opted to use the juice. Makes two cups.

Buttercream Frosting -

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp.)

2 cups powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla

a few drops red food coloring (optional)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat unsalted butter till fluffy. Add in powdered sugar, beating one cup at a time till well incorporated. Add heavy cream and vanilla. Beat for 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add in food coloring if desired.

 Assembly: After cupcakes have cooled, scoop out the center and fill with raspberry whipped cream filling. I use one of those cupcake corers and I really love it,  works great. Spread or pipe on buttercream frosting. Decorate with sprinkles and chocolate decorations, if desired.

The chocolate hearts and “xo” were really simple to make. It was my first time trying it so they’re not perfect but I think they turned pretty well considering. You just pipe melted chocolate chips onto wax paper in whatever shape you want. Let it harden, peel off wax paper, and they’re ready to use! If you want more info about how to do this click here.

And since I simply can’t bake without having some great tunes to dance around the kitchen to, thought I’d share a little playlist with y’all! These are songs that I’ve been loving and listening to constantly lately. Some new (or new to me) favorites such as Leagues, Family of the Year, & Haim to old favorites such as Jenny Lewis, Goldfrapp, & The Verve. And a song that I just discovered and have become addicted to, “The Zookeeper’s Boy” by Mew. How in the world am I just barely hearing this song?!  Why did no one ever share this with me? So wrong. It’s all kinds of awesome!

Anyway, hope you enjoy these songs! Would love to know what’s been on your playlist lately! :)