Oh boy. I had the idea for these kicking around for a while with a fridge full of raspberries, but needed a day that wasn't in the 90s to bake them, as well as the motivation of a hard workout to make me feel less guilty about eating them. I think climbing the highest mountain in the state fit the bill for that. It's four days later and my legs still hurt. Fortunately these are totally worth it.
I used boxed cake mix in these. Some people consider this "low quality" or "cheating," which I understand as it isn't 100% from scratch. But look at the ingredients on your box of mix: Flour. Cocoa. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Salt. The same. exact. things. you. would. have. combined. yourself. anyway. Probably even in the same proportions. So please, do yourself a favor, stop scoffing at boxed cake mixes if you are somebody who does so, and enjoy the convenience of not having to clean a bunch of measuring cups. Now the directions they give you on how to mix oil and water with the cake mix? That's another story, and that's where I come in. With alcohol.
This made exactly 19 cupcakes, just to screw with me.
Ingredients:
1.5 cups raspberries, divided, plus extra for garnish (if desired)
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup plus 2 TBS red zinfandel, divided
3 eggs
1/3 cup (or 5 1/3 TBS) butter, melted
1 pint very cold whipping or heavy cream, divided
4 TBS sugar, divided
8 oz very cold mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Red food color, if desired
Directions:
Rinse your raspberries and pat dry. Preheat oven to 350 and line couple of muffin tins with cupcake liners. (I really do not recommend greasing the bottom as the cake contains raspberries and could fall apart if not held in tact by the liners.)
For the cupcakes: Combine box cake mix with 1 cup zinfandel, the eggs, and the butter. Beat till smooth. Scoop half of the cake mix into another bowl (I used a measuring pitcher for easy-pour into the tins) and mix in half of the raspberries. Pour into muffin tins, filling a scant 1/2 way up. Distribute the rest of the batter evenly on top, filling the tins to almost-full. Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry. Allow to cool, then cut cores out of the top half.
For the Cream Filling: Place the remaining half of the raspberries into a bowl and dump a couple of TBS sugar on them to sweeten them and draw out their juice. Let stand a few minutes. Pour half of your cream into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar plus a couple teaspoons of zinfandel. Beat on low, then medium, then high speed until stiff peaks form. With a slotted spoon, remove raspberries from bowl and juice, and carefully fold them into the cream. When cupcakes have cooled, spoon them into the holes you carved out.
For the mascarpone frosting: I hate using two bowls, but you have to. Beat in one bowl the mascarpone with the powdered sugar, adding the raspberry juice and another couple teaspoons of wine. In the other bowl, whip the remaining cream, as before. Fold together, adding food color if desired. Spread or pipe on top of the cupcakes. (Note: this is not a stiff buttercream with which you can make fancy roses, etc. But it tastes a lot better.)
Garnish with raspberries if desired (I forgot to). Refrigerate any leftovers immediately as frosting will run if it gets warm.
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