Gina Chong

Food + Travel

Raspberry Rose Cupcakes

cupcakes, raspberry

If you don’t follow my Instagram then let me recount the story of these cupcakes. So they totally weren’t for anything specific, I just wanted to make a Valentine’s Day inspired treat and I also wanted to learn to pipe buttercream flowers. I took a class on Craftsy and bada-bing-bada-boom, they weren’t the best roses but they were better than I expected! I learned some great tips from that class, I’ll share them below! I put a lot of care and effort into my first ever buttercream roses and was quite proud of them. As I set up to take a photo, though, guess what happens?? My reflector comes crashing down right onto my cupcakes *crying emoji*. So I have zero photos of my unscarred cupcakes and nothing to show for all that work. I literally would have cried if my mom hadn’t been in the room. Fortunately the one I’m holding in my hand was seemingly unscathed so I decided to continue my photos and tried to focus on that cupcake and bokeh all the rest. Looking at my flatlays you can see where all the other ones are smudged or flattened. They were the survivors. So these photos are not ideal, these cupcakes are not ideal, but the recipe is worthy of sharing. I stuffed as many raspberries as I could into these and I love how they turned out. I actually keep rosewater on hand for some odd reason, but because I’ve been a nomad for the past year I didn’t have my normal kitchen supplies and my store didn’t carry rosewater. So my substitute: rose tea! It worked quite well, but it’s such a subtle flavor that you can honestly scratch it altogether (no need for a liquid substitute).

More tips: I learned from my Craftsy class that adding browns and yellows to pinks really help make them look more natural, and it’s true! And one thing I forgot to pick up at Michael’s was a flower lifter. I used chopsticks instead and oh how I wish I had some flower lifters!

 

 

Raspberry Rose Cupcakes
Makes about 30 cupcakes

Cupcakes:

  • 2-3/4 cups cake flour
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup rose tea
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 1 bag (12 oz.) frozen raspberries, slightly thawed
Frosting:
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup egg whites (or from 4 large eggs)
  • 3 sticks + 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp.
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • gel food coloring (opt.)
Directions:
For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to combine after each addition. Then add the rose tea. Reduce speed to low and add the flour in three batches, alternating with the milk. Mix until just combined. Fold in the raspberries.
Fill your cupcake liners until nearly full. Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let sit in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
For the frosting:
Fill a small saucepan with about an inch and a half of water. Bring it to simmering. In a heat-proof bowl, combine your egg whites and sugar and set on top of your simmering pot. Whisk continually until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture has reached 160F. Remove from heat and pour into a clean stand mixer bowl, careful not to let any of the condensation into your egg whites. Using a clean whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks. Add the vanilla and continue to beat. Then while still beating, add the butter half a stick at a time. Whip until it comes together, and add food coloring as desired. Pipe onto your cooled cupcakes.
Cupcake recipe adapted from HERE. Frosting recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

 

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