Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Updated July 05, 2019
I don’t bake cupcakes very often, but today is a special occasion. Today we are celebrating our good friend Kristan! Kristan, who blogs at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, is due to have a sweet baby girl any day now and today is her virtual baby shower! Yay!
Kristan loves cupcakes and the color pink…and since she is having a baby girl, I figured Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting would be the perfect treat to bring to her baby shower. Yes, I know we are not actually attending her baby shower since it’s a virtual shower, but maybe if I close my eyes and tap my ruby red slippers we will magically appear at Kristan’s house with our cupcakes. And it would be nice if all of our friends and their food could come too:) Come on ruby red slippers, work your magic today!
I love dark chocolate and raspberry together and the combo works beautifully in these cupcakes. The cupcakes are rich, rich, rich! If you are a dark chocolate lover, these are the cupcakes for you! And good news, they are super easy to make, you don’t even need a mixer!
To make the cupcakes, you melt chopped chocolate, butter, and cocoa together. Almost like making brownies. I used bittersweet chocolate and dutch processed cocoa to create the dark chocolate flavor. Chocolate, glorious chocolate!
The raspberry buttercream is sweet and tastes just like fresh raspberries. I usually don’t like a lot of frosting, but I am surprised the frosting made it to these cupcakes. I wanted to eat the entire bowl. I knew these cupcakes were for Kristan though, so I stopped myself and piped the pretty pink raspberry frosting on the dark chocolate cupcakes. I topped each cupcake with a fresh raspberry-the perfect finishing touch!
Congratulations Kristan! We are so excited for you and your family. We can’t wait until precious little Lucy arrives! And hopefully the ruby red slippers will work today so we can show up with a platter of Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting. If not, I guess we will have to eat them all by ourselves…in honor of you of course!
Make sure you check out what everyone else made for Kristan’s shower!
- Cookies and Cups | Zebra Cake Cupcakes
- The Hungry Housewife | White Cupcakes
- She Wears Many Hats | Pretty in Pink Party Marshmallows
- Two Peas and Their Pod | Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
- Bluebonnets and Brownies | Apple Cider Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
- My Baking Addiction | Sugar and Spice Cupcakes
- Picky Palate | Pumpkin Brownie Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- Blooming on Bainbridge | Twinkie Cupcakes with Pink Cherry Frosting
- Food For My Family | Pomegranate and Lime Olive Oil Yogurt Cupcakes
- Bakingdom | Homemade Twinkie Cupcakes
- Sprinkle Bakes | Princess Torte Cupcakes
- Glorious Treats | Sweet Baby Cupcakes with Easy Fondant Toppers
- Sweet Sugarbelle | Damask Cookies
- Buns In My Oven | Maple Cupcakes with Maple Frosting
- Dine and Dish | Neapolitan Cream Filled Cupcakes
- Chocolate and Carrots | Whole Wheat Chocolate Cupcakes
- Bake at 350 | Little Pumpkin Cupcakes
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- For the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces
- 2 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
- 3/4 cup all-purpose Gold Medal flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream I used Chobani Greek yogurt
- For the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Additional fresh raspberries for garnish-if desired
Instructions
- 1. To make the cupcakes: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- 2. Place butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Microwave in 30 second spurts on 50% power, stirring in between, until the butter and chocolate are melted and the mixture is smooth. (Alternatively, you could do this step in a double boiler.) Set the mixture aside to cool until it is warm to the touch.
- 3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine, then add the sugar, vanilla and salt and continue whisking until fully incorporated. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the bowl and whisk to combine. Sift one-third of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk gently to combine. Add the Greek yogurt or sour cream and whisk to combine. Finally, sift the the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl and whisk until everything is well combined. The cupcake batter will be thick.
- 4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Remove the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes before removing them to the rack to cool completely.
- 5. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the raspberry buttercream frosting. In a food processor or blender, puree the raspberries. Pour raspberries through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing on solids, to eliminate the seeds. Place butter, half of the powdered sugar, and raspberry puree into mixing bowl. Beat over low speed until well-blended. Add the other half of the sugar, increase speed to medium. Mix until light and fluffy.
- 6. Frost cooled cupcakes with the raspberry buttercream and top each cupcake with a fresh raspberry, if desired.
Have you tried this recipe?
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I’ve slowly been tackling buttercream and I really want to make a raspberry one like this! It’s on my never-ending list…sigh.
The cupcakes look fabulous!
I swear by Cook’s Illustrated chocolate cupcake recipe. They ALWAYS turn out for me. Can’t wait to try them with your raspberry buttercream. What a delicious baby shower!
Mmm…raspberry is one of the best things with chocolate!
Chocolate and Raspberries – one of my all time favorite combinations! These sound amazing!
These are the cutest! I love how the deep dark chocolate is offset by the tart buttercream. Delicious!
These look wonderful! Such great flavors!
chocolate makes everything better and raspberry and chocolate i think is a match made in heaven. the cupcakes look so delicious and also loved the idea of Greek yogurt!
Nothing I love better than dark chocolate and strawberries! It was fun doing the baby shower with you:-)
These look incredible.
These are so pretty! And I agree, raspberry and chocolate are just the perfect combo!
Chocolate and raspberries are a delicious combination! Thanks for sharing!
These look beautiful! Can I make the buttercream with frozen raspberries?
R
Wow these look so good! What a great flavor combo! and your photos are always so mouth watering!
Help! I made this icing with margarine, could that be why they tasted like pure butter? My I’m wondering if Crisco would be ok instead of butter?
Absolutely lovely cupcakes! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
These were amazing! I had some trouble with the buttercream though. How much purée do you get from 1 cup of fresh raspberries? I used frozen berries and had way too much, obvious upon needing to add at least 2 more cups of powdered sugar. And they still look kind of “rustic”! Oh well, Miss Emily, who turns 16 today (12/12/12) and her volleyball team will love them!
I am sure the frozen berries provided more liquid. I haven’t tried the recipe with frozen berries. Glad you added more powdered sugar. I am sure they look great. Happy Birthday to Miss Emily!
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I love these to the Nth degree! Happy Baby shower Kristan and way to go Maria for such a n inspired cupcake idea.
What a lovely baby shower! These cupcakes look so rich and chocolatey…mmm; and that fluffy raspberry frosting….
These look yummie, must try these, but I have one small nagging question, how do you get your cupcakes to dome and not to bloom ? mine always burst open at the top and although they taste nice it makes them harder to decorate. Should I maybe lower my oven temperate ?
Thanks
I have never had my cupcakes burst open. I am not sure why they do that. Sorry!
I had to make chocolate cupcakes for a birthday party, and I figured I’d give this recipe a try. I am very sorry to say, I was disappointed. The cupcakes were dry, definitely not a moist cake. The tops were slightly hard and crunchy. I didn’t over bake them, and I followed the recipe to the letter. I hate leaving a less than favorable review, but I figured I should add my experience so readers can decide whether or not to try this recipe…the ingredients aren’t cheap. 🙁
I made these cupcakes….terrible. Very dry will not make them again!
This is an amazing cupcake recipe! I made these with just 1/2 cup cane sugar & goat yogurt & they turned out fabulous! Super chocolatey rich, almost like a brownie cupcake, could eat these on their own without topping. Thank you I’m definitely re-making these again!
I’m super disappointed in this frosting. Not only did it not come together, the flavor was overwhelmingly sweet!! Mine looks absolutely nothing like the picture!
Thanks for the recipe. I made these for my daughters’s birthday last weekend and they were a huge hit.
Having read this I believed it was extremely informative.
I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this information together.
I once again find myself personally spending a
lot of time both reading and posting comments.
But so what, it was still worthwhile!
Everyone is saying how good these look…. They real question is how good do they taste?
We found the icing separated… can’t figure out what to do to fix it… anyone else have this problem or know why it happened?
Thanks for the recipe! The tastiest and fluffiest chocolate cupcake I’ve ever made hehe
The butter cream was horrible! It left butter clumps and it wouldn’t even form into a frosting texture! Not only that, it never even said when to add the vanilla extract. If you’re thinking about using this icing recipe. DON’T DO IT. I just wasted all those ingredients for nothing and now I’m very upset.
Made these tonight and they are delicious! Perfect for a late winter treat.
I was making these for Easter, and thought everything was going well until the very end. I bake regularly and these were pretty horrible. The Buttercream was separated, with chunks of butter that just would not mix. I love chocolate and raspberries, but it was overly sweet and the cake was VERY dry. I wouldn’t recommend this recipe, especially since it takes quite a bit of time to prepare.
I do not like this Raspberry Buttercream recipe. The frosting is way too goopy!!! I ended up adding lots of extra powdered sugar
Thanks for the recipe. I made these yesterday and they turned out great! I put raspberries and chopped up chocolate in the centre before baking and made cream cheese frosting instead. Will use this recipe again.
Sooo I may have made a boo boo when first trying this recipe but it worked out well in the long run. I used regular granulated sugar and couldn’t whip it enough to save my life– I was still left with a grainy frosting that trumped the light vanilla taste of my cupcakes I was using it on.
I threw the disaster on the stove and melted it for a few minutes and waited until the sugar melted it down, then cooled it completely and whipped it again. The result was a happily fluffy frosting that worked perfectly.
Great recipe for raspberry lovers! Works on just about anything. I also used it as the middle layer of a white cake with a different flour-based vanilla buttercream on the top, and it gave the cake a zing of flavor without overdoing it. Looked gorgeous, too!
This cupcake is dry and crumbly. The frosting as given is way too soupy. Mine looked pretty but did not taste right. Very disappointing. I wish more comments would focus on actually making the recipe than how pretty they look or how yummy a raspberry chocolate combo is.
Amazing frosting. Although, there was an error. If you look at all butter cream frosting recipes there is much more powdered sugar. I stopped at the two cups mentioned in the recipe and had butter raspberry soup. You could not even scoop it. Many other recipes have 2 lbs of sugar not 2 cups. I just added powdered sugar until it was spreading consistency. But it was amazing!
Can i use margarine instead of buttur for the frosting?
This is a really delicious dessert and it was so good that i want to make a triple layer chocolate cake with this raspberry frosting!! Thank you for making this recipe.
I forgot to add that it was a little chunky until i added a quarter cup of cream cheese to make it smooth. Sorry