The Awesomest Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes That Ever Lived

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift together cocoa, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

3. In bowl of a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes (until relatively smooth). Add eggs and beat until incorporated.

4. Slowly add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture; once that is incorporated, pour in the coffee and milk and mix until incorporated. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and raspberry extract and beat until uniform.

5. Fill about 24 lined cupcake pans about 3/4 of the way full and bake for about 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

FROSTING:

The frosting I use is so easy that I am not even going to give it its own post. It is the definition of ‘semi-homemade.’ All you need to do is grab a carton of Chocolate Fudge Frosting and mix in several drops of the raspberry extract before spreading. It turns out delicious and is so easy, it is CRAZY.

Notes:

You can either add less or more raspberry extract to the cupcake batter and frosting according to your tastes. Just taste each until you find the perfect amount.

I generally add chocolate chips or chunks to this recipe (I love chocolate too much for my own good). I just mix them in after the dry ingredients.

I have also found Raspberry-Filled Chocolate Chunks in the baking section at my grocery and those were just MADE for these cupcakes. Just press a couple of those chunks into the filled cupcake tins and each cupcake will have a nice surprise in its center.