raspberry filled vanilla cupcakes w/ vanilla buttercream frosting*

Last night I finally broke down and downloaded the Draw Something app on my phone and made the hubby play with me. Oh, my cute little husband. He is so funny and doesn't even try. If you have never played before, it is just like Pictionary. It lets you watch your opponent draw their picture and make mistakes and erase and start over until they finally have their finished product. Well, I was watching the hubs draw his word with my thinking cap on, just trying to get it in record time. He kept erasing over and over, and each thing he tried to draw was completely different, just leaving me more and more confused. And then I thought for sure I got it. He was drawing a dinosaur with a spiky mohawk! Then he erased and drew an American flag with "42 cents" written in the corner. Evidently his word was "stamp". So I asked him where the dinosaur came into play. What I thought was a dinosaur, was actually the Statue of Liberty. Oh man...hahaha. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Definitely my new favorite game! If nothing else, it cracks me up!

These cupcakes were the dessert at the sports banquet on Wednesday. The blog I got the recipe from suggested ways to make your store bought cake mix taste homemade, so I followed those instructions. Although, I think each store bought cake mix is different because all of the extra ingredients just made my cupcakes fall apart easily. You live, you learn. Homemade is the way to go!

I think I also kind of got anxious with my filling, because I don't think I let it boil long enough and get as thick as it needed to be. Once it cooled down and I added my raspberries, it wasn't as thick and I wanted it to be. So I added some whipped topping to make it thicker. So if you find yourself in the same predicament, I would suggest adding about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of whipped topping to your filling. It still tastes amazing!

Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes w/ Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
adapted from Tidy Mom

1 box of cake mix + ingredients to make mix (or your favorite homemade recipe!)

Raspberry Filling
2 full cups frozen unsweetened raspberries, thaw with 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/4 cups water*
6 Tbsp flour (or 3 T. corn starch – I didn’t have corn starch)
1 tsp lemon juice

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup real butter (not margarine) *room temperature
1 cup vegetable shortening
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
1/4 – 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
paste food coloring

Instructions

Mix and bake cake mix according to the directions.

Raspberry Filling

In a medium sauce pan, combine water*, sugar, flour and lemon juice and mix well. *If there is any juice in your raspberries, drain the juice and add to water = 1-1/4 liquid*. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir in thawed raspberries.

*Yields approximately 2 cups of filling. (If your filling is really thin, add some whipped topping until it reaches the desired consistency, which is what I had to do)

 Filling Your Cupcakes

Bake cupcakes and cool completely. Cut out a small cone shaped section in the center of the cupcake. Add raspberry filling to the hole. Replace the tops (just do the best you can- they don’t have to be perfect). Now they are ready to frost.

Buttercream Frosting

Thoroughly cream butter and shortening . Beat in the vanilla. Add sugar, one cup at a time until blended. When the sugar is completely beaten in and the sides of the bowl are scraped down, add the whipping cream, beating at the highest speed until super fluffy, about one minute.

If you wish to add color to your frosting, use the gel paste food coloring. It’s stronger and more vibrant. (I didn't add gel paste food coloring, and the frosting was still very white). Add frosting to a pastry bag with your favorite tip and frost!

Dig in!

-alyssa*