Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Okay, here's my confession for the day. I don't love raspberries. I really don't. I am so much more of a blueberry gal. I mean, I like the flavor of raspberry, but do I want to pop fresh raspberries in my mouth? Nope. I mean, they're kind of furry. And the seeds get all packed into my back teeth. And they're expensive. AND they are big pansies and fall apart if you look at them sideways. Yeah, I like blueberries.

Now if you abuse your raspberries and strain the seeds out and turn them into something else, then I'm all behind that. And I had a friend who was having a birthday and asked for a lemon cupcake, but I wanted to make it more special than that - using some pink and really making it pretty. By lucky chance, my local grocery store had organic raspberries on sale this week for just $5 for a huge package. Raspberry lemonade! Can't beat that!

So I made a lemony cupcake for the base and filled it with a fresh raspberry mousse ('cause who doesn't like mousse? None of my friends, I say!), then topped the whole shebang with a raspberry-lemon buttercream. It turned out so light and Spring-y and so wholly inappropriate for October that this has become one of my favorites. I think you'll love it too.

Happy birthday, Shaylin! I'm so glad you were born! And I hope you like the cupcake!

~ Raspberry puree ~
12 oz. fresh raspberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
(1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin)

Okay, this is going to turn out to be more of a juice than a puree, but you're going to be using it in the filling and in the frosting, so make this first and let it cool. It's really pretty simple.

Dump the raspberries in a medium sized pot. Sprinkle on the sugar and the lemon juice and mix it all up.

Heat over medium until the raspberries start to fall apart and the berries are giving off their juices.

Keep letting it boil gently until it has thickened a bit but it's still liquid.

Man...look at all those seeds!

At this point remove the raspberry mixture from the heat and pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a non-reactive bowl, pushing down with the back of a spoon to get all the good bits of raspberry (but not the seeds). Once you've got all the juice, return it to the (cleaned) pan.

Now, sprinkle on the powdered gelatin and heat and stir just until it's dissolved. Then remove the juice from the heat and let sit at room temperature until you're ready to use it. If you're really smart, you'll reserve 1/4 cup of the juice and set it aside for the frosting later. Just a suggestion...

Let's make the filling now so that it can be nice and cold and ready for the cooled cupcakes. I know, I'm hopping all over the place.

~ Raspberry Mousse ~
Raspberry juice with gelatin, from above (room temperature and not warm at all)
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Whip the cream to soft peaks. Add in the sugar. Continue whipping the cream to firm peaks. Gently and carefully, fold in the raspberry juice, about 1/4 cup at a time, into the whipped cream until it's fully incorporated. Store the mousse in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill the cupcakes.

Okay, we're back to the cake.

~ Lemon Cupcakes (slightly adapted from the Alchemist who really has the prettiest display of lemon cupcakes I have ever seen) ~

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon zest, lightly packed
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saucepan melt the butter with the lemon juice and water on medium high heat. When the butter is melted remove from heat. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest and whisk together. Let this mixture cool come to room temperature before going any further. In a separate bowl. whisk the flour, salt and baking soda together, then whisk the dry ingredients into the batter. The batter will be somewhat thin, you will be able to pour it in the cupcake liners.

(Funny story - I never sift my flour and leavening together, because I am lazy. Usually I'll just mix the salt and leavening into the batter and mix it in, then I dump in the flour. So I did that with this recipe, just dumped in the baking soda, not thinking about the acidity of all the lemon juice in the batter. My batter began to grow, and grow, and grow. I quickly put it into my biggest bowl, and my batter grew. Anyone hanging out outside my apartment - WEIRDO - would have heard, "Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!" Finally I beat the batter into submission and mixed in the flour as best I could, but I am definitely going to try this recipe again without my lazy shortcuts. Snerk).
Prepare muffin pans with cupcake liners. Pour (or ladle) the batter into the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Do NOT open the oven to check on your cupcakes. You can wait.
Once the cupcakes are baked, remove them from the oven and let them cool for five minutes. Then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, cut out a cone-shaped portion out of the top of each cake. Slice off the excess cake from the cone (leaving the flat cap) and reserve the top. Fill the resulting hole with about a tablespoon of the mousse (or however much you need). Replace the cap. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes, and then put in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill and set the filling (once chilled, it will become very thick and hold the caps in place).

Light and Spring-y!

~ Raspberry-lemon buttercream ~
1 cup (two sticks) salted butter, softened
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Reserved 1/4 cup raspberry juice with gelatin (from above)
1 teaspoon salt
4 - 5 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and zest and beat until smooth. Add in the raspberry puree and salt and beat until well-combined. Add in the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until the frosting is good and thick and of a consistency to pipe onto the cupcakes (or to spread on with a knife or spatula, if you'd rather).

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes using a large star tip and feel free to decorate further, as I did, with pink and yellow edible glitter and a single, perfect raspberry on top.

Store these in the refrigerator because of the mousse - this will make 20 cupcakes.

So pretty - I just loved how these turned out.