Valentine's Red Velvet Cupcake w/Raspberry Marshmallow Cream Cheese Frosting

So I have decided that I will do a monthly (maybe more) cupcake recipe to share with you!  They are all going to be from scratch and since I'm not overly experienced with baking, hopefully easy for anyone to try!  With Valentine's Day coming up next month, I thought I'd try a traditional red velvet cupcake with a yummy, nontraditional frosting. :-)

Didn't they turn out SO pretty?!  And the best part is, they taste delicious too!  The cupcake itself is not overly sweet and to me has a nice, strong cocoa taste.  The frosting is cream cheese-y and since it's made with marshmallow cream has a great sweetness to it and the raspberries add a perfect bit of tartness to the whole package.

First I started by preheating my oven to 350°.  Then I combined my dry ingredients in a bowl and set them to the side.

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Then I creamed together all of my wet ingredients...

(I was very careful when editing my pictures not to adjust the color at all.  The batter will be very red, but I think the picture looks crazy red because of the direct sunlight coming in through my kitchen window.)

Beat 1/2 cup softened butter and 1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar until fluffy (about 4-5 mins on medium)

Beat in 2 eggs, one at a time

Then mix in 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup milk, 1 1/4 tsp vanilla and 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons of liquid red food coloring, depending on how red you want them to be.  (Just don't go overboard because then you'll only be able to taste the food coloring in the finished product.)

Gradually mix in your dry ingredient mixture until blended.  Be sure that you don't over mix.

See!  Once the cocoa powder and flour are in the mix, it doesn't look so crazy red anymore! :-)

This recipe made me exactly 18 cupcakes.  I filled each cup 2/3 full.

Now pop those bad boys in the oven!  I baked them for 18 mins and then checked...they were well formed but not completely cooked so I put them in for another 6 mins.  By then the toothpick came out clean and they were ready to cool!  Don't over bake!  You don't want to be stuck with a dry, crumbly cupcake.  

Yummy and very red velvet-y!

While your cupcakes are baking, you can get your frosting together.  It's amazingly easy with only three ingredients!

First take about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of FRESH raspberries and chop them.  I used them right out of the fridge so they were nice and cold and didn't lose too much juice while I was chopping.

You don't have to chop them real fine.  Nice, small chunks are good!

Now after you have done that, take an 8 oz package of soften, room temperature cream cheese and a 7 oz tub/jar of marshmallow cream.  Blend those together on medium until smooth and creamy.

Add in your chopped raspberries...

I used a fork to carefully mix in the raspberries.

Let the frosting hang out in the fridge until your cupcakes are cooled and ready to frost.

See how nice they turned out!  To frost mine the way I like, I put my frosting in a quart sized ziplock bag with the corner cut out.  You don't want the hole to be too big or you won't have enough frosting to go around for all the cupcakes. :-)

After I frosted, I topped them off with a fresh raspberry.  I love how this looks because I think the raspberries look like little hearts on top of the cupcake. :-)

So be sure to make plans to make this cupcake to surprise someone with on Valentine's Day! :-)

Edit:  Husband just ate one and said it's his most favorite cupcake I've ever made!  He said the cupcake is not too sweet and has good flavor and the frosting is just enough to go perfectly with the cupcake.  He also thinks the raspberry/chocolate pairing is a winner!  YAY! :-)


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