Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to whip up some adorable treats, and these Sweetheart Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting are as delicious as they are beautiful. If you’re looking for cute Valentine’s desserts to impress your loved ones, this recipe has you covered. With a rich chocolate cupcake base, luscious chocolate ganache filling, and dreamy raspberry frosting, these cupcakes are the epitome of indulgence. Whether you’re baking for a romantic dinner, a festive gathering, or just indulging in some Valentine’s themed food, these cupcakes are sure to steal the show. Let’s get baking!
How to Make Raspberry Puree for Frosting and Filling:
Ingredients:
-12 oz. raspberries (fresh or frozen)
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup water (Use slightly less if using frozen raspberries)
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Before we can get into these deliciously easy cupcakes, we have to do the most complicated (but not too complicated!) part first. We have to make some raspberry puree that will be used for filling and frosting our masterpieces at the end. Don’t worry, it really is easy!
Place all ingredients in a pot over medium-low heat. Stir constantly, breaking up the raspberries.
Keep stirring until the mixture almost boils. Try to avoid letting it boil too much, but if it boils a little, you’ll still be all right! Your goal is to evaporate away as much of the water as possible, so that you’re left with a mixture that’s about the consistency of pancake syrup.
Once your mixture is about as thick as pancake syrup, remove the pot from the heat. Let the mixture cool a little bit.
Then, place a strainer over a bowl.
Pour your raspberry mixture into the strainer. Using the back of a spoon, press down on your raspberry puree, forcing the liquid part out through the strainer, and leaving the seeds separate.
This part is a little time-consuming, I admit. However, you want to get as much of the raspberry puree out, without having the seeds, because the seeds will mess up the texture of your frosting.
When you are done, you should be left with a bowl of smooth, seedless raspberry puree in a bowl. Discard the seeds.
Now that you have your raspberry puree, we can continue on with our cupcake adventure!
How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting
Ingredients:
-1 chocolate cake mix (plus the fixings to prepare it such as oil, eggs, and I suggest you use coffee in place of water)
-Raspberry puree (from above)
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
-1 cup butter, softened
-4 cups powdered sugar
-2 tablespoons of milk
Part 1: Bake Your Chocolate Cupcakes
Prepare your cupcakes according to the instructions on your box mix. Replace any water with coffee that has cooled to room temperature if you want a richer chocolate flavor. You can also replace the oil with melted butter, or use the vegan substitutions mentioned above.
Let your cupcakes cool fully before filling and frosting.
Part 2: Make Your Raspberry Ganache Filling
Place your chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave them for 30 seconds and then stir.
Microwave for another 30 seconds and stir. Continue doing this until your have a smooth ganache.
Finally, add in half of the raspberry puree you made from above (Save the other half for the frosting!!)
Using a cupcake corer, carefully remove the center from your cupcake. Using a small spoon or a piping bag, carefully place some of the raspberry chocolate ganache in the hold you just made. I like to replace a tiny piece of cupcake back on top. Usually, I just rip the part I removed in half and stick half back.
Part 3: Frost your Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake
Make your raspberry frosting. Put all of your frosting ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer until everything is smooth and there are no lumps of butter. Start on a low speed, and then work your way up to a high speed. Start with only a tablespoon of milk or cream, and add a little more until you reach the consistency you want.
Place your frosting in a piping bag with a tip. I like the Wilton 1M tip for frosting cupcakes.
Draw a little frosting swirl on top of each of your cupcakes. Note: If you like to be generous with your frosting (Like I do!), you will probably have more cupcakes than you do frosting. It all depends on how much frosting you pipe onto each cupcake. Boxed cake mixes tend to make around 20 cupcakes, but I can normally frost around 16-18 cupcakes with one batch of frosting.
Enjoy!
There you have it, folks! A simply delicious recipe that takes the convenience of a boxed cake mix and transforms it into a masterpiece with homemade raspberry frosting. These Chocolate Cupcakes with Real Raspberry Frosting are sure to be a hit at any gathering or as a sweet indulgence all to yourself.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I do. It’s always a joy to whip up something that tastes homemade without all the fuss.
FAQs for Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Do I have to make the filling too?? I just want a cupcake with frosting and to be done! I feel you, and the answer is YES! If you just can’t with one extra step and making chocolate raspberry ganache, then you can totally skip the filling. Just make half of the raspberry puree recipe listed here to make just your raspberry frosting.
Can I make these vegan? Sure thing! To make this recipe vegan, just replace any eggs in your cake mix with 1/2 cup of applesauce. Skip the chocolate ganache filling. Ganaches use heavy whipping cream, which is not vegan. If you want to fill your cupcakes with something else, you could just use raspberry preserves! Finally, replace your raspberry frosting with the recipe used here (4 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup vegetable shortening and half the raspberry puree recipe used here)
How to Enhance a Boxed Chocolate Cake Mix
Add coffee instead of water
The coffee brings out the richness of the chocolate and really enhances the flavor! You can prepare your chocolate cake mix as normal, according to whatever the box says you need. However, in place of water, use coffee. You will not regret the trade off in flavor in the end! Just make sure you let your coffee cool to room temperature before you mix it with eggs, or you’ll end up with scrambled egg bits in your cupcakes! If you want other chocolate cake ideas with a box mix, check out my chocolate layer cake with Bailey’s flavored frosting.
Use melted butter instead of vegetable oil
If you want another quick swap for a richer, creamier flavor, you can swap the oil your cake mix calls for for melted butter. Just as with the coffee, make sure your melted butter isn’t so hot that it cooks your eggs in the end!
If you like these chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting, check out:
Raspberry Sorbet Cupcakes
Mini Confetti Cupcakes
Oreo Cupcakes
Pecan Pie Cupcakes
Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 chocolate cake mix Prepared according to the box instructions
Raspberry Puree for Filling and Frosting
- 1 cup raspberries fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water use slightly less if using frozen raspberries
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Chocolate Raspberry Filling
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 raspberry puree prepared from above
Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 raspberry puree prepared from above
- 1-2 Tbsp heavy cream or milk for depending on desired thickness
Instructions
Make Chocolate Cupcakes
- Prepare your boxed cake mix, making cupcakes, according to the instructions on the box. Replace any water with room-temperature coffee (For example, if your cake mix calls for 1 cup of water, use 1 cup of coffee isntead).
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting
Make Raspberry Puree for Filling and Frosting
- Place all the puree ingredients in a pot over medium-low heat
- Stir constantly, breaking up the raspberries while you stir. You want the mixture to come to an "almost boil" without boiling too much.
- Keep stirring until almost all the liquid has evaporated and your puree has thickened to have about the consistency of pancake syrup.
- Remove puree from the heat and let it cool. You don't have to let it cool completely (The next step will actually be a little easier if the puree is still warm).
- Place a strainer over an empty bowl. Pour the raspberry puree into the strainer. Using the back of a spoon, press the raspberry puree through the strainer and into the bowl beneath. This step takes some time! However, you want to push as much liquid through the strainer as possible, leaving behind the raspberry seeds.
- Dispose of the seeds left in the strainer and set your liquid raspberry puree aside.
Make Chocolate Raspberry Ganache
- Put your chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
- Microwave for another 30 seconds and stir. Continue doing this until you have a smooth ganache.
- Stir in half of the raspberry puree you prepared from above. Stir until it is fully incorporated and smooth.
Make Raspberry Buttercream
- In a large mixing bowl, mix butter, powdered sugar and the other half of the raspberry puree until everything is smooth and there are no lumps of butter or sugar.
- Add in milk or cream a tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired frosting consistency.
- Put frosting in a piping bag with a tip and pipe onto finished cupcakes. Note: This amount of frosting usually gives me around 16 cupcakes, but if you used a box cake mix, you might have something around 20 cupcakes. If you really want to frost all of your cupcakes, consider making smaller buttercream swirls. Or, pile on the frosting and just have a few unfrosted cupcakes that you call "muffins"! 🙂
