Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

I love chocolate and raspberry as a flavor combination!!! At Christmas my mom is always stuffing my stocking with Ghirardelli raspberry squares. And now Mars company is meeting my craving needs with dark chocolate and raspberry M&Ms. When I read Diane's recipe I knew I had to give it a try!

My first challenge was to locate raspberry extract. For some reason I thought I saw some at Publix a while back and oh was I wrong. (Always seems to be the case when trying to eliminate multiple stops on the way home.) Michael's is across the street from my Publix so I gave them a ring to only be let down. Luckily not a mile from my house is a fabulous store called Cake Art and they have almost everything you need for baking including raspberry extract. I say almost because while I was there I asked them to order University of Georgia baking pans. If you are not a Bulldog fan, then they do have everything you need!

The recipe is a doctored cake mix which is a good thing when trying to save time over a long holiday weekend. (I baked these over my 5 day Labor Day weekend.) All went well with the cupcakes. Then came the icing! My mom and I contemplated whether or not to leave out the raspberry jello in the icing. Needless to say it tastes a little gritty. Not sure if we should have mixed it longer. The next day when I shared some with my small group the icing had a more pleasing texture. It is up to you if you want to experiment with jello in frosting. Next time I will leave it out. With all my baking experiences there are bound to be some failures. Doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist. Let's just say my parents, coworkers, and small group were not complaining when it came time for the taste test!

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Raspberry M&M’s

Ingredients

• 1 Chocolate Cake Mix (Betty Crocker’s Devils Food)
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons raspberry jello*
• 1 teaspoon raspberry extract

Raspberry Frosting

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup shortening
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons raspberry extract and 3 tablespoons raspberry jello*
• 3 tablespoons milk
• Beat butter and shortening, add in sugar, milk and extract and coloring. Mix until smooth and creamy.

Instructions

1. Prepare cake mix with butter and milk instead of oil and water that it suggests and add eggs one at a time until incorporated.
2. Place mix in cupcake lined cupcake pan and bake according to package and oven temperature. Test cupcakes at minimum time to be sure they won’t be dry. I bake mine at 325 degrees as mine pans are dark and my cupcakes are finished at the minimum time it suggests.