Brighten Up Your Day Chocolate Cupcakes With Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

For my dear friends Vadim and Artem's birthday, I decided to whip up some cupcakes. After digging around to come up with the right flavor profile, I thought the combination of rich chocolate cake and tangy raspberry frosting would certainly fit the bill. Nothing says happy birthday like some baked goods from the heart :).

Recipe
For the cake
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup brewed strong coffee
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 jumbo eggs


For the frosting
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 pint raspberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 oz. package of powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Three Berries Walk into a Bar of Cream Cheese

I made strawberry cheesecake cupcakes for a friend's housewarming and they were a hit. I decided to walk on the wild side and turn the recipe into a cake. To be honest, it was less for the sake of innovation and more just old fashioned laziness that drove me to tinker with the recipe. This is also the first time that I've decorated a cake. Altogether, I must say that it was a rather ambitious project. The cake consists of 4 components: the graham cracker crust, the cake, the whirled-in cream cheese and the frosting. The process is a bit intricate, but I assure you that the results are well worth the effort.

Recipe
For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups blackberries
pinch of salt


For the cheesecake filling:
8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon strawberry jam


For the raspberry butter cream frosting:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup raspberry syrup
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar


For crust and decoration:
1/3 box graham crackers (11 sheets, crumbed)
3 sheets of graham cracker broken up into 4 pieces each


Special equipment:
12 inch spring form cake pan