White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

So I feel like I've pretty much abandoned the blogging world for the last few weeks but I have been of having a fab time in Spain with the boyfriend and some friends. And then this past week I've been busy recovering from said holiday.

However the last few days I've definite got my baking bug back, baking something new for 4 days in a row from a disaster with my first attempt at fudge from new cupcake flavours.

I had a whole load of Raspberry's in the garden that needed picking and It does seem that every summer I am looking for different recipes to use them up. I know raspberry's are perfectly matched with white chocolate and as I really love white chocolate I went searching for a white chocolate and raspberry cupcake recipe and found a perfect one over at mias bakehouse It really did have the perfect mix of tart raspberry and creamy white chocolate and the frosting is just divine. On making my batch I upped the chocolate content because well I'm just plain greedy and I also added a few more raspberry's as I needed to use all I had left so just tipped them all in.    

any way here they are :

My friends mum who always likes to try my cupcakes have declared these as her new favorite, surpassing her previous favorite, the chocolate orange cupcakes.

any way here's how they're made:

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes   (Adapted from Mia's Bakehouse)


125g Butter, softened
125g Caster sugar
125g Plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
3 tbsps milk
80g raspberries (I probably used around 90- 100)
70g white chocolate (melted)

Pre heat oven to 180degC
Beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually stir in the flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla until ingredients are just incorporated.
Add the raspberry's and melted chocolate and gently stir into the mixture.
divide the mixture between 12 cupcake liners and bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely whilst you make the frosting.

White Chocolate frosting

100g Butter, softened
200g Icing Sugar (adding a little more if the frosting is to soft)
70g White Chocolate (melted)
1-2 tablespoons milk

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water and leave to cool.
Beat together the butter and sugar until combined then beat in the cooled chocolate and milk making sure you don't over beat the mixture, and adding a little more icing sugar if the frosting is to soft. Chill in the fridge and the top the cakes and finish with a fresh raspberry or a drizzle of raspberry syrup.

And that's it, these cakes are really good and have fast become one of my favorite flavour combinations, The white chocolate makes them really sweet but that's fine with me, Clyro the dog was sulking he didn't get one though, see:

 Not for puppies, all for me! hehehe.

Any way that's It for today apart from a plea to send me a link to your favorite fudge recipe, I've unsuccessfully tried to make fudge this week and it is something I'm hoping to get right so I need good tried and tested recipes and tips. 

Keep Baking


Cupcake Kris xxx
Linked to foodie-friends-friday-linky-party

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Brownies and Amaretto Cupcakes

As I said in my last blog I have recently been seeing lots of fantastic recipes on every one's blog recently and this next recipe is no exception. I saw this recipe on one of my favorite blogs Chocolate Teapot. So many great recipes on this blog definitely check it out.

This recipe for Chocolate Peanut butter Brownies is such a simple one so easy to make and it was a perfect treat to cook for the boyfriend (who loves peanut butter)after work on a Friday night. And he must have liked them as the whole tray didn't last more than 24 hours (Ok I did sneak a few myself). I will definitely be making these again and again, any way here are mine:

They were so moist and the perfect mix of Peanut Butter. I had a little problem with my peanut butter as it was a brand I had never used before and it really didn't want to melt but I managed to get round that little problem.

Any way here's how they're made:

225g Crunchy Peanut Butter
200g Plain Chocolate broken into pieces
280g Soft light brown sugar
3 Medium eggs
100g Self raising flour

Set aside 50g of both the peanut butter and the chocolate. Heat the oven to 180 degC and grease and line a brownie tin. I didn't have any lining left so just greased the tin and dusted with flour and that worked fine.

Gently melt the remaining peanut butter, chocolate and all the sugar in a pan, stirring until the sugar has just about melted.  This is where I encountered my first problem with the whole lot just clumping, I don't know why it happened but adding a splash of milk and stirring, fixed the problem and loosened up the mix.

Turn off the heat and use a wooden spoon to beat in the eggs one by one. Stir in the flour and scrape into the tin.

Melt the reserved peanut butter in a microwave for 45 seconds or in a pan, until runny then drizzle over the Brownie (I don't have a microwave and again my peanut butter wouldn't melt in the pan so i simply spread / dolloped mine over which still worked perfectly)

Bake until the brownie has a crust but the middle still seems slightly uncooked, Chele recommended 30-35 minutes but I had a shallower wider brownie pan so I went for around 25 Mins. And they were the perfect mix of crust and gooeyness. 

Melt the reserved chocolate and drizzle over the brownie then chill before cutting into squares. I on the other hand couldn't wait, they smelled so good so i cut one out before the chocolate had even hardened.

And that was the brownies, such a quick treat to make but they also disappear just as quickly.

Also recently I have revisited one of my past recipes but this time I feel they worked a lot better, these were Amaretto cupcakes for a friends mums birthday and this time I topped them with an amaretti  biscuit. She also ordered 6 chocolate orange as these are her favourites. any way here they are:

Any way the recipe was tweaked slightly and I felt it wasn't as dry as last time

Chocolate Amaretto Cupcakes
Makes 12.
100g Plain flour
20g Cocoa Powder
140g Caster Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
40g Unsalted Butter
1Egg
20 ml Milk
approx 100ml Amaretto  -Until you have a nice consistency and strong but not to overpowering taste.
Few drops of Vanilla extract
Few drops of Almond extract


Preheat the oven to 170 deg . Mix all the dry ingredients together and rub in the butter until you have a sandy consistency.
Whisk the Eggs, Vanilla and almond together in a jug and pour about into the dry mix and beat to combine.Then add the milk and Amaretto gradually until the mixture is smooth, free of lumps and off a good consistency.
Spoon the mixture into paper cases two thirds full and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

For the Amaretto butter cream.
250g Icing Sugar
80g Unsalted Butter
2-3 Tbs Milk
3-4 Tbs Amaretto

Blitz all ingredients together until you get the right consistency  - add more Icing sugar, and Amaretto as needed.

They definitely looked a lot better than last time as I didn't mess the icing up.

Before I go for today I just want to show you one last thing. A birthday present I got a little late but was hand made by my sister so made up for it here it is:

It's all cross stitched and she even painted the frame herself! how cute huh!

Any way that's all for today, no baking this weekend as I'm off to finish packing as I'm off to Spain on Saturday morning with the boyfriend and some of my lovely friends to try all the cocktails and food they have to offer.

so bye for now and keep baking xxx