Chocolate cake filled with marshmallow fluff and topped with intense (and natural) raspberry buttercream makes the perfect Raspberry Hot Chocolate Cupcake.
That’s right, these are filled with marshmallow fluff! It’s a little surprise for your tastebuds and brings a playful side to these gorgeous cakes.
Christmas cupcakes don’t always have to scream Christmas with red and green sprinkles and peppermint and gingerbread. They can be elegant and fruity! Don’t get me wrong, I love an Andes Mint Cupcake or a cute Ornament Cupcake but who could say no to something this pretty? No one.
The Story:
I can’t tell if my family is really into traditions or just really lazy. Our Christmas stockings are always filled with oranges and dental products, my mother always gets the most gifts, we each get hot chocolate. But every member of my family always gets a different flavor of hot chocolate, though we get the same flavor every year. My father– the chocolate lover– gets dark chocolate. My mother– classy woman– gets original. My brother Andrew gets mint. My brother Paul gets caramel. And I get raspberry hot chocolate.
Raspberry Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1 box devil's food cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 C. oil
- 3/4 C. milk or buttermilk
- 3/4 C. sour cream or yogurt
Marshmallow Fluff for filling
Raspberry Buttercream:
- 1.2 oz. freeze dried raspberries crushed and sifted to remove seeds
- 1 C. butter softened
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3-4 C. powdered sugar
Fresh raspberries and sprinkles (or marshmallows) for decoration
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Sift cake mix into a large bowl to remove any lumps and add eggs, oil, milk and sour cream. Stir until smooth.
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3. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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4. Let cool.
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5. Use a small knife to cut out holes from the tops of the cupcakes and fill with marshmallow fluff! This gives is the "hot chocolate" feel with the marshmallow filling!
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6. Raspberry Buttercream: (For info about the raspberries and substitute alternatives, see below.) Beat butter until smooth. Add in raspberries (crushed and sifted) and vanilla extract and beat again. Slowly add in powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. Add milk if it becomes too thick.
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7. Pipe onto cooled (and filled) cupcakes and top with fresh raspberries and sprinkles. You can also just top them with mini marshmallows or one big one!
Okay, this is my special weapon for fruity frostings. Trader Joe’s sells these packets of freeze dried fruits! Just dump them into your blender or food processor (take out the little white pouch inside though) and crush them down into a “powder.” Then sift out the large pieces that didn’t get crushed and most of the seeds. This way, your frosting will be silky smooth and you can pipe it onto your cupcakes! The color and flavor is really intense and incredible. Whenever I cater a wedding I always use freeze dried fruit and the guests just love it! I believe I have seen freeze dried fruit at Target and other places though, so call around to your local stores and see what they have! If you want to use something else, you can use raspberry jam! I like to give it a little extra “boost” and add 2 teaspoons of raspberry jello powder for added color and flavor.
This is such a quick and easy filling for cupcakes!
And yes, I found gorgeous raspberries in November (I know it’s December but I made them last week). I felt like it was summer again when I was eating handfuls of berries, and then I looked outside and saw the snow in the mountains. Stupid winter.
Things are getting busy in my kitchen! I may be posting just about every day this month! Eeek!
Perfect!
What type of tip do you use?
I think I just used a basic wilton 2D, I’ll sometimes spread the spokes apart a little extra 🙂
You can never go wrong with the combination of raspberries and chocolate! I bet these cupcakes tasted just as delicious as they look.
The marshmallow fluff and raspberry buttercream!!! yummm! love these cupcakes!!
Can you use fresh raspberries instead of freeze dried? This looks so yummy!
You can, but you won’t be able to nearly as much flavor or color because you’ll be adding moisture to the frosting. Check the notes above, I explain some other options!
The combination of chocolate and raspberry is my favorite. Trader Joe’s was out of the raspberries, so I decided to buy strawberries. O my, these turned out so good! My kids love them and my husband was blown away with how authentic the frosting tasted. Like him, I’ve never had a fruit flavored frosting taste real and not artificial. I could eat the entire bowl of frosting by itself. I used an entire jar of fluff for the filling and could have used more. My cupcakes seemed to almost soak it up like the Butterfinger blizzard caramel filling. Also, next time I make these, I am going to double the frosting recipe. I love how cupcakes look with a big swirl of buttercream and there just wasn’t enough for the look I desired. In all though, this cupcake is incredible! Thank you Lizzie for sharing your recipe!
I love these cupcakes.
Wonderful!!! How many cupcakes can that bake?
Wonderful!! How many cupcakes can that bake?
i want to make these for work, but i want to use a mini cupcake pan to make mini ones.
Wat do i need to change about the recipe in order to do this?
Nothing to change in the recipe expect bake for only 10-13 minutes!
How many cupcakes does this make?