While I bake quite often, I don’t make cupcakes that often! My children love them as a treat though of course, so I thought I’d make some vanilla cupcakes with raspberry buttercream, which would also be great for Valentine’s Day.
The buttercream is made from fresh raspberries, and I used a quick and easy method to make them into raspberry purée. Read on to find out how to do it!
These paper baking cups are so cute and if you use them you don’t even need a muffin/cupcake tray, plus you have no tray to wash up.
That’s definitely a win-win situation!
Simply pipe your buttercream icing, add a fresh raspberry on top and some heart-shaped sprinkles and you’re ready to go.
This recipe is great in that it makes a small batch of six vanilla cupcakes, which is great for a small celebration at home or to share with a small group.
Raspberry frosting
The fresh raspberry adds a lovely colour and flavour to your buttercream, and not a food colour in sight here.
Since the buttercream already contains sugar, I kept my raspberry purée unsweetened, and it adds a lovely tang of that fresh raspberry flavour to your cupcakes.
Ingredients
Here’s what you will need to make this recipe. The precise quantities are in the recipe card further down.
- butter – I prefer to use unsalted for baking.
- caster sugar
- eggs – I use free-range.
- self-raising flour
- milk
- vanilla extract
- raspberries
- icing sugar
- sprinkles, to decorate
Step by step
Get the amounts from the recipe card at the end of the post.
To make the cupcakes:
- Cream the butter with the sugar and then mix in the eggs, flour and milk and vanilla extract.
- Fill each baking cup two thirds full.
- Bake at 170°C for 15-20 minutes or until baked through and golden.
To make the raspberry buttercream frosting:
- Mash the raspberries with a fork and then push through a sieve to deseed, making raspberry puree.
- Microwave the raspberry puree on high for one minutes at a time, stirring between each heating, for 2-3 minutes in total, so it reduces and thickens. Leave to cool.
- Meanwhile, beat together the softened butter and icing sugar to make your buttercream. Use either a hand mixer or whisk (a stand mixer that can cope with small quantities will also work) and mix until light and fluffy.
- Stir in the cooled raspberry puree to the buttercream and make sure it is mixed in thoroughly.
- Once your cupcakes have cooled completely, pipe swirls of buttercream, finish with a raspberry on top and sprinkles if you wish.
Valentine ideas
Here’s a bumper selection of more Valentine recipe ideas from me and my blogging friends:
- Raspberry shortbread hearts
- Nutella spelt pancakes
- Strawberry loaf cake
- Easy strawberry tarts
- Vegan shortbread from The Veg Space
- Vanilla bean waffles from Supper in the Suburbs
- Chocolate orange love heart biscuits from Fab Food 4 All
- Valentine cranberry orange scones from Farmersgirl Kitchen
- Rice Krispie heart treats from United Cakedom
- Ice cream cookiewiches from Foodie Quine
- Raspberry and vanilla homemade marshmallows from Fuss Free Flavours
Pin for later!
Recipe
Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 120 g (½ cup) butter unsalted
- 120 g (⅔ cup) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 2 eggs
- 120 g (1 cup) self-raising flour
- 1.5 tbsp (1½ tbsp) milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the raspberry buttercream:
- 100 g (⅘ cups) raspberries
- 75 g (⅓ cups) butter softened
- 150 g (1¼ cups) icing sugar
To decorate:
- fresh raspberries, one per cupcake
- heart sprinkles
Instructions
- Cream the butter with the sugar and then mix in the eggs, flour and milk and vanilla extract.120 g butter, 120 g caster sugar (superfine sugar), 2 eggs, 120 g self-raising flour, 1.5 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Fill each baking cup two thirds full
- Bake at 170℃ / 340℉ for 15-20 minutes or until baked through and golden.
- Mash the raspberries with a fork and then push through a sieve to deseed.100 g raspberries
- Microwave the raspberry puree on high for one minutes at a time, stirring between each time, for 2-3 minutes in total, so it reduces and thickens. Leave to cool.
- Meanwhile, beat together the softened butter and icing sugar to make your buttercream.75 g butter, 150 g icing sugar
- Stir in the cooled raspberry puree to the buttercream and make sure it is mixed in thoroughly.
- Once your cupcakes have cooled completely, pipe swirls of buttercream, finish with a raspberry on top and heart sprinkles.fresh raspberries, one per cupcake, heart sprinkles
Jade wright says
I’m wanting to make this raspberry buttercream To fill a drip cake, it won’t have fondant just buttercream covered. Does it need to be stored in the fridge?
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
Wow I love the vibrant pink of the buttercream it’s so pretty! Thanks for linking up to #TreatPetite
Mary says
These lovely little cakes look very enticing. You call them ‘Vanilla’ cupcakes but I don’t see any vanilla in your recipe. How much and what type i.e. Extract, vanilla bean seeds or Paste?
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks for noticing, recipe now updated! Half term hols here, mind on other things 🙂
Agness of Run Agness Run says
These cupcakes are gorgeous! The colour is stunning, so does the complete decoration! Simply love them!
bakingqueen74 says
thank you! a bit of prettiness to brighten up our day 🙂
The Petite Cook (@PetiteCook) says
They look so lovely! I’m sure that buttercream tastes amazing as it looks, well done!!
bakingqueen74 says
thanks Andrea, it tasted sooo good!
Lucy @ Supergoldenbakes says
Love that buttercream – the fresh raspberries must make it taste amazing.
recipesfromapantry says
I need to pop over to yours so that I can learn how to pipe like yours.
Jac -Tinned Tomatoes (@tinnedtoms) says
Those look gorgeous! Such a beautiful colour. I’m not usually a fan of cupcakes, but I am feeling very tempted right now!