Raspberry Cupcakes

Fluffy vanilla cupcakes filled with tangy raspberry jam, topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting for a sweet and fruity cupcake!

This blog post is sponsored by Camp Hollow. If you’d like to purchase these adorable cupcake toppers visit the link here!

Why make these raspberry cupcakes?

Raspberries and cream cheese are a dream combination. The pairing of tangy and creamy makes for an absolutely delicious dessert.

These light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes are topped with this delicious raspberry cream cheese frosting that tastes just like cheesecake!

Unlike regular cupcakes, these aren’t too heavy and greasy. That’s because the raspberry jam cuts through the sweetness and greasiness. On top of that, the frosting is much lighter than buttercream. This ensures a perfect balance of sweetness in this dreamy cupcake!

Tips for a perfect cream cheese frosting

This cream cheese frosting is so easy to make and it tastes just like raspberry cheesecake. Here are a few tips and tricks that can help you achieve a perfectly smooth and silky cream cheese frosting!

Use room temperature ingredients

Cream cheese is particularly sensitive to temperature. If you use cold cream cheese your frosting can turn out lumpy and uneven. Beating the room temperature cream cheese with sugar at the very start helps to prevent this.

If you find that your cream cheese has clumped up you can transfer the frosting to the bowl of a food processor and pulse it until smooth.

Don’t overbeat

Overbeating the frosting can cause the cream to split and separate. This results in a grainy and watery frosting. This is why we add the cream last!

If you find that your frosting has split, transfer the frosting to a food processor and add a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese. Pulse on short bursts until it comes back together.

Keep it chilled

As this frosting is made from cream cheese and cream it benefits from staying chilled. If you find that the frosting is starting to get runny, or isn’t as firm as you would like just put it in the fridge for half an hour to chill.

The cream should thicken up to the perfect pipeable consistency.

Cupcake Ingredients

The ingredients needed to make these cupcakes are pretty typical, there isn’t anything out of the ordinary and you’ll be able to find most of these ingredients in your pantry.

• Whole milk: Make sure you use whole milk, the fat content of the milk helps create a moister, fluffier cupcake.
• White vinegar: The vinegar is needed to react with the milk and curdle it. This helps with moisture and rise as it reacts with baking soda.
• Vegetable oil: Vegetable oil adds fat while keeping the cupcakes light!
• Unsalted butter: Butter adds fat while giving the cupcakes a more fragrant flavor
• Granulated sugar: Sugar is needed for sweetness, as well as an extra lightness to the cupcakes
• Eggs: Binds everything together
• Vanilla extract: Adds a delicious aroma to the cupcakes!
• Plain flour: Plain flour or all-purpose flour forms the structure of the cupcakes
• Baking powder: Gives the cupcakes rise, but is less potent than baking soda
• Baking soda: Reacts with the curdled milk for an extra rise
• Pinch of salt: Balances out the flavors in the cupcake

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• Cream cheese: Cream cheese makes up the bulk of the frosting as it is a cream cheese frosting! Make sure you use block-style cream cheese otherwise the frosting will be too runny.
• Thickened or heavy cream: Thickened and heavy cream are the same thing, in this case, they will be thinning out the cream cheese to the perfect pipeable consistency.
• White sugar: Sugar is needed to sweeten the frosting! Feel free to add more or less to your taste. Keep in mind that the raspberry jam will add a little sweetness to the frosting too.

Raspberry Jam Ingredients

• Raspberries: Either fresh or frozen raspberries work great here!
• Lemon Juice: Lemon juice is needed to help the jam thicken as well as give the jam a little tang
• White sugar: Sugar sweetens the jam and balances out the sourness of the raspberries and lemon juice. You can add more or less to your taste
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is added at the very end to thicken the jam. You can use potato or tapioca starch if you don’t have any cornstarch.

Raspberry Cupcake Recipe

Print Recipe

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• Author: Catherine Zhang
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 12 Cupcakes 1x
• Category: Cupcake
• Method: Easy
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

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Vanilla Cupcakes

• 120ml Whole milk (1/2 cup)
• 1 tsp White vinegar
• 60ml Vegetable oil (1/4 cup)
• 30g Unsalted butter (2 tbsp 1 tsp), room temperature
• 150g White sugar (3/4 cup)
• 2 Eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 165g Plain flour (1 1/3 cup)
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking soda
• Pinch of salt

Raspberry Jam

• 300g Frozen or fresh raspberries, roughly chopped (10.5oz)
• 100g White sugar (1/2 cup)
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1 tbsp Cornstarch

See Also This Recipe:  Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 400 g Cream cheese, softened (14 oz)
• 180 g Thickened/Heavy cream (3/4 cup)
• 70 g White sugar (1/3 cup)
• 2 tbsp Raspberry jam

 

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Instructions

Vanilla Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
2. Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners
3. Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl, set aside
4. Add sugar, butter, and oil to the bowl of a stand mixer, or large mixing bowl and beat for 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy
5. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter and beat on high for 1 minute, until well combined
6. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl, and whisk to combine
7. Add half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined
8. Add the milk, followed by the rest of the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined
9. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners
10. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
11. Cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting

Raspberry Jam

1. While the cupcakes are baking make the raspberry jam
2. Combine the raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice together in a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until the raspberries have broken down and the mixture has thickened slightly
3. Add the cornstarch and whisk constantly until thickened (it should coat the back of a spoon)
4. Remove from the heat and pass the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve to remove the seeds
5. Place in the fridge to chill completely

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Combine the softened cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or in a large bowl
2. Whisk on medium-high speed until lightened in color and fluffy
3. Add the thickened cream and cooled raspberry jam, and whisk until the frosting has lightened in texture and reached stiff peaks

Assembly

1. Make a small cavity at the top of each cupcake and fill with the raspberry jam
2. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe swirls of frosting on top of each cooled cupcake.
3. Top with your desired decorations and enjoy!

Catherine Zhang

My name is Catherine, a food blogger and dessert lover. If I look familiar you may have seen me on NETFLIX's Zumbo’s Just Desserts S2! As an Australian-Chinese pastry chef and recipe developer I share recipes and tips on desserts inspired by amazing flavours, fresh produce and of course my Asian background.

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