Lemon Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes

We’re celebrating BIG with these Lemon Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes! Come, shake a leg! ❤

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

 

It was a long long time ago. I was probably 13 or 14 at the time; I picked up a magazine and as I browsed through it, I found a page showcasing these majestic looking red beauties with their luscious white frosting against a black background. I just couldn’t take my eyes off of them. They were beautiful and looked unfathomably delectable. (No, I’m not in LOVE with cakes! Okay, maybe a little!)

Ever since, I’ve been fixated on Red Velvet Cupcakes, always looking for them in every patisserie I enter. All of that stopped when I baked them myself for the first time. It was a couple of years ago, I was pensive to the bone about how they would turn out. As they sat on my dining table, the frosting a teeny bit too runny, I went through a series of emotions – it felt like all those years of waiting came down to my first-ever tasting of Red Velvet Cupcakes! And may I tell you, instantly they were my favorite among the entire lot of cakes and cupcakes I had tried my hand at. Even today, they remain my favorite.

Over the years I’ve baked these cupcakes for many family members and friends and there has not been a time when any one disliked them. I’ve also been asked for their recipe tons of times. So here goes.

Here’s what you need:

For the cupcakes:

• All Purpose Flour – 125 g
• Baking Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – 1/4 tsp
• Cocoa Powder – 1 tbsp
• Unsalted Butter – 60 g
• Sugar – 130 g
• Egg – 1
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
• Buttermilk – 120 ml
• Red Food Coloring – 1 and 1/2 tbsp
• Vinegar – 1/2 tsp
• Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Cream Cheese – 200g
• Icing Sugar – 100g
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

This is how you make them:

The Cupcakes:

• Preheat the oven at 160 degrees Celsius.
• In a bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
• Pour the red food coloring into the buttermilk and stir well. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
• In the meantime, beat the butter and sugar until well combined. Add in the egg and mix thoroughly.
• Add in one-third of the flour mixture into the beaten egg butter and sugar and blend.
• Then add in half of the red buttermilk and mix.
• Continue the same procedure, alternately adding in the flour mixture and red buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
• Mix the vanilla extract into the prepared batter.
• In a small bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda. The mixture will start bubbling and fizzing. Immediately add it to the batter and mix well.
• Line a muffin tray with paper cups and pour in the batter – fill up to about two-thirds of the volume of the cup.
• Pop the tray into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The Frosting:

• Beat the cream cheese until soft and creamy.
• Carefully sift in the icing sugar. Make sure not to over-beat as the frosting will turn out runny.
• Add in the vanilla essence and give the frosting one final mix.

 

• Once the cupcakes cool down, top them with the frosting. You can either pipe it on the cupcakes of spoon it over them.
• Decorate with whatever kind of edible decorations you wish to use.

These Red Velvet Cupcakes will blow your mind. The cupcake by itself is buttery with a hint of chocolate and an enveloping wholesome feeling coming from the buttermilk. The texture of the cake is Oh-soooo-velvety; melt-in-your-mouth is an understatement really! Complimenting the moist sweet cupcakes is the stark contrast of tangy, creamy and sweet cream cheese frosting that is sure to make you fall in love. These cupcakes are by far the only baked goodies that I just cannot resist. They are pure, glorious heaven! Every time I bake them, they taste better and better and better; they’re one of the few cakes I’ve never gone wrong with, and proudly so!

Everyone I’ve ever baked these cupcakes for, absolutely loves them. My best friend asks for red velvet cupcakes almost every time we talk. The cousins can’t seem to get enough of these; every time they are in town, they most definitely demand for a batch. My brother loves Red Velvet Cupcakes and so does my mom. The boyfriend can eat an entire batch all at once, and still ask for more! Back when I was in college, I regularly received order for Red Velvet Cupcakes; amazing how something so small can bring so much joy to so many tummies!

Everyone who’s ever tried them, has definitely loved them. Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are a world-wide favorite, and I would recommend you try them too! You can thank me later 😉

 

 

Double-Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes

Strawberries are my absolute favorite fruit to use in a dessert. It is the perfect sidekick to anything chocolate (chocolate covered strawberries, anyone? I need to visit my fridge, give me a minute). I just cannot get over my obsession with the chocolate-strawberry combination; I’ve been experimenting with it quite a bit.

Being home alone most of the time gives me a lot of room to go a little crazy in the kitchen; I took the liberty and decided to do something out of my comfort zone. And Lo and Behold! I came up with these moist gooey chocolate cupcakes filled with fresh strawberry chunks, topped with vanilla butter-cream frosting and finished off with fresh strawberries. It sounds really exotic, but it’s really not so hard to put together, and let me tell you – it tastes FABULOUS!

Without further ado, I’m going to give you my secret to becoming the coolest home-baker your loved ones have ever known (you’re going to serve them cupcakes with fillings and they are going to think you are a genius!)

So let’s get started!

For the chocolate cupcakes:

You can use your favorite go-to chocolate cupcakes recipe, it will work just as well with the strawberries. This is the recipe I normally use, and I absolutely love it. I never go wrong with this recipe, the cupcakes always come out perfectly risen, moist and not-too-sweet, just the way I like it.

Ingredients:

• Sugar – 2 cups
• All Purpose Flour – 1 and 3/4 cups
• Baking Powder – 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Salt -1 tsp
• Milk – 1 cup
• Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp
• Cocoa Powder – 3/4 cup , sifted
• Baking Soda – 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Eggs – 2
• Vegetable Oil – 1/2 cup
• Boiling Water – 1 cup

Here’s how you make them:

• Preheat your oven to 175 degree Celsius.
• Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Add eggs, milk oil and vanilla extract and blend until well-combined. Stir in boiling water . (Don’t be alarmed that this batter is too watery. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.)
• Bake for about 12 minutes or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean.
• Keep them on a wire rack until cooled completely.

Now, try not to eat all of them up before you fill them in with strawberries and finish them up with the frosting.

So next up – filling the cupcakes! Cut up a few strawberries into really tiny cubes and toss them with some granulated sugar. Then scoop out the top of your cupcakes in a cone. I know, it sounds very hard to do, but its not. Hold the cupcake in your hand, take a serrated knife and insert it into the cupcake and cut at an angle while you turn the cupcake in a circular motion. That way, a cone shaped piece of cake with come out. Now, of the cone you have, cut off the lower cone portion till you only get the top disc of cake.

Then fill the hollow with some of the prepared strawberry filling and then recover the cupcake with the top disc of cake.

Now that you’ve successfully filled the cupcake, frost on some vanilla buttercream icing and top it off with a fresh strawberry.

For the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

• Butter – 60g
• Confectioner’s sugar – 80 to 100g (depending on how sweet you like it)
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

Blend all the ingredients till you get a smooth creamy delicious frosting.

And here’s how you eat them. Tear the wrapper apart, and take a big bite of the cupcake; all at once there will be the gooey chocolate laced with the sweet and sour strawberry center, the sweet creamy texture of the vanilla buttercream and the freshness of the strawberry-on-top dancing a tango on your tongue. Indulge and revel!

A little tip: These cupcakes taste different as they age. On the first day they had bang-on distinct flavors, while after keeping them overnight the strawberry filling made the cupcake taste a little like a black-forest cupcake as it gave out the flavor of kirsch or strawberry liqueur that is used while making a black-forest cake. So according to me, they taste best right away, but if you’re a black-forest fan then you’re going to love it the day after too.