Rachel's Cookery: White chocolate raspberry cupcakes with shortbread crust

Jeez, I think I'm still too close to these cupcakes - I just made them yesterday and I still have a dozen of them in my refrigerator. However, I am committed to making another cupcake today and if I don't write about this one I will completely forget about it and the opportunity to blog will be lost.

That's already happened once - I've made these cupcakes before. Or, something similar - I know they were white chocolate raspberry cupcakes but honestly I can't remember anything about them, other than the face that my dear friend Bill (Hi, Beeeellll!) said that they were the best cupcakes he'd ever had. So I still had about a million raspberries (dang Raley's had them on a really great special and I lost my head in the produce department) and I had white chocolate and I thought I'd make them again.

Some people are funny about white chocolate, because it's not really chocolate. "What's the point?" they say. And then they snobbishly start talking about cocoa butter and blah blah blah - and to them, I say, "Get over it." It's an ingredient like any other and it works particularly well with something tart. If you can't bear that it's not technically chocolate, we can call it something else. White...stuff. That goes well with tart.

I realize that there are a lot of steps to these cupcakes, and sure, it's not really something you want to put together after a long day at work. But as a very wise man pointed out to me yesterday, making cupcakes like this is a form of mediation for me, and I enjoy it. Give yourself a few hours, and pop on some music or a book on tape (heh - book on tape - do those even exist anymore?) or put a nice documentary on the tv as background noise (I recommend Ken Burns) and get going. You'll be glad you did, and your friends will be even gladder. Yes, Mother and Father, I said gladder. Twice, now.

Oh yes, one more thing. I love the contrast of the shortbread crust with the soft cake and the sweet frosting and the tangy filling. However - one person to whom I served this cupcake didn't understand the cookie on the bottom and graciously told me that it was a good cupcake even if I'd overcooked it until it was crispy. Humph! I did explain the whole shortbread concept and mentally removed him from my cupcake recipient list, but you might want to warn your friends about the bottom.

So let's get started!

~ Shortbread crust ~

1 cup all purpose flour1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cups chilled butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to blend.
Cut butter into large chunks and add to food processor. Blend for about 1 minute, until dough has a very sandy appearance and starts to clump together.

Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Press about 2 tablespoons' worth of the shortbread mixture into each muffin cup, pressing down with your (clean!) fingers to form a solid layer.

Bake the shortbread-lined tins in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the cookie is just starting to turn golden. Set aside to cool while making your cupcake batter.

Yes, this is how it is supposed to look. Do not be discouraged.

Just push it down with your (clean) fingers to make an even layer.

Okay, so your crust is baked and cooling. Now on to the raspberry filling. I went with a slightly different technique than I used for the Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes. Take a breath and let's keep going, shall we?

~ Raspberry filling ~

12 ounces fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Place the raspberries, lemon juice, and the sugar in a food processor. Pulse several times to chop raspberries; blend until pureed, about 30 seconds.

Place cornstarch in a small bowl and slowly whisk in the water until it is a smooth consistency. Don't just dump in the water or you're going to get cornstarch lumps. Ew. That doesn't sound good at all. I don't even like the word "lump"! But I digress... pour the cornstarch mixture into the raspberry mixture in the food processor and blend again until smooth. If you're using a mini processor, as I did, you're going to be cutting it close. It would probably behoove you to use the full sized machine.

Push the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds, pressing against the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula to be sure you get all the juice and fruit pulp. That is a very short sentence to describe a process that's probably going to take you 5 - 10 minutes. Don't give up - this is worth it.

I am not gonna lie. I hate this part. Just put on some music and deal with it.

Pour raspberry mixture into a saucepan and simmer over low heat until thickened, about 5-10 minutes. Let the raspberry filling cool.

Okay! Now let's bake some cake! You know, sometimes I wonder if anyone else is ever going to follow this recipe...

~ White Cupcakes ~

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk or sour milk (meaning add a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk and let it sit until until it curdles)
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 stick salted butter, room temperature
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg whites and buttermilk.
Place the sugar in your mixer bowl and add the lemon zest. Mix the zest and sugar together until the sugar is moist (I'd like to point out that I am not particularly fond of the word "moist" either) and fragrant. Add the butter to the sugar mixture and beat at medium speed until it's light and fluffy.
With the mixer on low, add one third of the flour mixture, then add half of the buttermilk mixture. Add half of the remaining dry ingredients, then the rest of the buttermilk mixture, and finally the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl then mix on medium until all is combined, but be careful to not overmix the batter.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them about 2/3 full.
Bake in the preheated oven until cupcakes are very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 18 minutes.
Cool cupcakes in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove 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 cooled raspberry filling (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).

Home stretch! Just the frosting left.

~ White Chocolate Frosting ~

2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk, or as needed

Place white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30-second intervals until chips begin to melt, about 1 minute. Stir and repeat, heating chips about 10 seconds at a time, until thoroughly melted. Alternately, you can do this very carefully on the stove over low heat, if you are like me and don't have a microwave. Stir until chocolate is smooth and no more lumps remain. Let cool to close to room temperature.

Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add in the white chocolate and beat until smooth and combined. Beat in the salt, half the powdered sugar and then half of the milk if needed. Slowly beat in the remaining powdered sugar until the frosting is a good consistency to pipe onto the cupcakes.

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, then sprinkle with edible glitter and top with a fresh raspberry.

There, you're done. Now give them away!