Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes for raspberri cupcakes' 5th Birthday!

Today raspberri cupcakes is 5 years old! Can you believe it? I can't. I'm pretty sure in blogging years that is a decently long time. I couldn't let an occasion like this go by without any acknowledgement, even though things are crazy in my part of the world at the moment. So of course, I made raspberry cupcakes for raspberri cupcakes. Swirly ones.

Aren't they pretty? I mixed some raspberry compote into the white chocolate icing, and also some raspberry puree into the white cupcake batter. Strangely enough the batter turned a sort of purple shade, which matched the paper liners. I thought it was appropriate since purple is my favourite.

The cakes on their own didn't taste as strong as I had hoped, so you might want to try mixing in whole raspberries if you want a bigger raspberry flavour in the cake. The icing was also a little salty for my liking, so I've switched it in the recipe below to use unsalted butter. But I loooove how the swirlyness turned out. So purdy. It helps that I invested in some nice big new piping bags so it was easy to fill it half with white and half with pink icing to achieve the perfect swirl.

It's so weird to think about how far this blog has come from its humble beginnings. I never would have imagined how many amazing experiences and wonderful friends I would get from starting this little website and I feel super lucky because of that. This blog has become part of my life and hopefully will continue to be part of my future. To those of you who read my blog, try my recipes, comment here or on facebook or instagram or write me messages or emails, thank you so much. You can't imagine how much it means to me. There have been so many times where I've had fleeting thoughts about whether it was worth the effort to keep going with the blog, and then I've gotten a sweet email or comment from a reader and it just reaffirms that it is always worth it.

So cupcakes for everyone! I wish I could send one out to each and every one of you but I can't, raspberries are 7 bucks a punnet and I would go broke. But I wish I could! Anyway I hope that I can keep doing what I'm doing, because it's been a blast. Happy 5th Birthday to my little blog!

Aaaaaannd GIF!

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

(makes about 20 cupcakes, cake adapted from i am baker's Perfect White Cake, icing from Cookies and Cups)

For the icing:

150g (about 1 punnet/5.5oz) raspberries (frozen or fresh), pureed and strained (about 1/2 cup strained puree)

Finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup sugar (50g)

340g (1.5 cups) butter (preferably unsalted, I used salted and found it too salty in this case)

255g (9oz/1.5 cups of chips) good quality white chocolate (min 30% cocoa solids, do NOT use baking chocolate), finely chopped

Optional: Fresh raspberries for decoration

1. Prepare the icing ahead of time as it will need to be chilled before whipping.  Place butter and white chocolate in a large saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring regularly until smooth (the solids may separate but this is okay). 
2. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes, then chill in the fridge until solid, about 3 hours. If you are impatient like me you can stick it in the freezer for about half an hour.
3. Place raspberry puree, lemon rind and sugar in a small saucepan on medium/low heat and simmer until mixture has thickened and darkened slightly, about 10-15 minutes. 
4. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes, then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. (You can skip this step and replace this with 1/3 cup raspberry jam to save time) 
5. Before you are ready to decorate your cupcakes, remove white chocolate mixture from fridge at least 30 mins ahead of time to allow it to soften slightly.
6. Place white chocolate mixture in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy.
7. Place 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl and fold in raspberry mixture or jam until combined.
8. Prepare a large piping bag with a star tip, fill one side along the length of the bag with the raspberry icing and the other side with plain white icing and pipe over cupcakes in a spiral motion. (About 1 part pink to 2 parts white icing will work best)
9. Optional: Top cupcake with fresh raspberry for decoration.

For the cupcakes:

150g (about 1 punnet/5.5oz) raspberries (frozen or fresh), pureed and strained (about 1/2 cup strained puree) 

295g (about 2 cups + 1 tbsp) plain flour

4 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
2/3 cup milk at room temperature

6 large egg whites at room temperature

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

350g (1 3/4 cups) granulated sugar (I used caster)

4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

170g (1 1/2 sticks butter), softened but still cool (I used salted, add 1 tsp salt if using unsalted)
Optional: 50g raspberries, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two cupcake trays with cupcake papers.
2. Triple sift flour and cornflour together in a medium bowl.
3. Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.
4. Pour raspberry puree, milk, egg whites, and vanilla into a medium bowl and mix with a fork until blended.
5. Mix flour mixture, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.
6. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 & 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute. Optional: fold in extra chopped raspberries at this point.
7. Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full with batter (an ice cream scoop helps with this).
8. Bake until toothpick/skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
9. Pipe icing mixture above, store iced cupcakes in fridge, removing 15 minutes before serving to allow icing to soften slightly. Icing will melt if left at room temperature for too long.