Cupcakes a la Emma :)

I saw this delicious blog post on Elsie's blog and couldn't help but try it. I am a sucker for anything sweet, gooey and jammy!!! Her sister Emma made these fantubular morsels of jammy goodness for her wedding and I NEEDED THEM. lol

Here is my attempt. {**please note that I am no baker, nor decorator, nor Martha Stewart in any way...so mine of course don't look quite as pretty! LOL}

Emma made the recipe very easy to follow - especially for someone like me who has never made cupcakes from scratch before! LOL

Here's the recipe...
This recipe will make 22-24 regular size cupcakes.

For the cake batter:
2 1/2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup oil (I use vegetable or canola), 2 cups water, 2 teaspoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt). In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients (oil, water, vinegar and vanilla extract). Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined and no visible lumps are left in the batter.

Fill cupcake pan (with liners) 2/3 full. Bake at 350 F for 20-22 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


For the filling:
1 packaged softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup raspberry jam.
Mix cream cheese and jam together until combined, spoon filling into a pastry bag.
For the frosting: 1 1/2 cups softened butter, 1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon raspberry extract.

With an electric mixer beat the butter until creamy. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until creamy. Keep adding  bit more sugar at a time (beating in between) until you reach your desired sweetness. Then add in the extract, mix and spoon into a pastry bag fitted with whatever pastry tip you like (or none at all).
Using a sharp knife cut out small upside down cones from the center of the cupcakes. Fill this little hole with the raspberry/cream cheese filling. Pipe on frosting to cover the hole and the rest of the cupcake. Garnish with a real raspberry or a raspberry candy (we used candies).

They were alot of work {I don't know how Emma did it for the wedding...she is professional!!!!!} but oh so yummy!!!I decorated mine a little different, only because I can't find those little candies. I guess I could have used Swedish Berries...oh well. I also added a tad of red food coloring to my frosting.

Look at that yummy filling...that's a pretty good photo too...I'm getting better with my pictures!!! :)

This is the plate I gave my Bestest Neighbor Friend and her kidlets last night. :) Love them.

Thanks Emma & Elsie for the recipe, and for making me get off my butt and bake...haven't done that in ages!

Cheers,

S.