Makes 12 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Slowly mix together melted chocolate and oil. Whisk together soy milk, coconut milk, lemon zest, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full – my cupcakes overflowed, so err on the under-filled side here). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make filling, combine frozen raspberries with water, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until raspberries begin to break down. Add 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixture and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing as much through as possible. Return strained mixture to heat once again. Add another tablespoon of cornstarch mixture, and bring to a simmer. If mixture still seems thin, add more cornstarch as necessary. It will thicken more upon cooling. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Cut out small cones from tops of cupcakes (holes should be approximately 1/2″ across and 1/2″ deep), saving removed cake. Fill holes with raspberry filling, and replace cake on top.

To make frosting, beat butter or margarine and cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until creamy. Melt white chocolate as before, and mix in vanilla seeds or extract. Add to frosting and mix well. Add extract and soy milk, and beat until fluffy (add more sugar and/or soymilk if you need it, until you get the right texture). Generously pipe or spread onto filled cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a single fresh raspberry.

Of course I had to test-drive one of them, yum! I really enjoyed it!  This was my first time filling cupcakes, it was a fun experience!

Recipe amendments:

A few points about these cupcakes, firstly, the batter looks pretty dark in the bowl, I was momentarily concerned, but it’s normal.  I think most of my recipes have used white sugar so they tend to be paler cupcakes.

The recipe says 20-25 minutes, I gave mine 15 minutes, then another 3, by the time those extra 3 minutes were up, I’d say they were verging on overdone.  17 minutes probably would have done the trick and been perfect!

The raspberry sauce for inside the cupcakes took forever to get thick.  I just slowly added a little more of the cornflour mixture, and stirred it over a low heat, hoping for the best.  The recipe said it thickened more when it cooled, so I put it in the fridge overnight (with the frosting) and true enough it was thicker this morning when I took it out to fill the cupcakes!

My one other thing is, normally, I make my frosting, put it in the fridge over night and frost my cupcakes just before I need them (whether that’s taking them with me to where I’m going, or having them ready for people arriving to the house!)

I did so this time, however, I got it out of the fridge this morning at 7.30am to work on my cupcakes, when a moment of ‘oh crap’ hit me smack in the face.  The frosting contains white chocolate, so, when you put it in the fridge it gets hard.  Real hard. Chocolate hard.  I had to stick it in the microwave for a quick blast to make it pliable enough to pipe.  But I didn’t want to over-do it and melt the chocolate.

Nightmare!!!

I can be such an idiot sometimes!!!  I got it to the point it could be piped, but it needed a bit of elbow grease, I’d have liked it a little softer, but didn’t want to dance with danger!

All in all, I think these were pretty successful, the ladies at my Spanish group enjoyed finding the little raspberry ‘surprise’ inside them and they enjoyed the white chocolate frosting.  Col hasn’t tried one yet, but I’m almost certain he’s going to want me to make another batch soon!