This is my first creation since discovering Bake It In A Cake. While it’s not the first time I have baked something inside of a cupcake (see my Cadbury Cupcakes), it is my latest obsession. Since stumbling upon Megan’s website, I’ve been contemplating the idea of putting something inside of a cupcake. I started simple, putting a mini chocolate cupcake inside of a white chocolate raspberry cupcake. So there you have it, a gluten-free cake-in-a-cake creation!
You’ll need to bake two separate recipes for this, the first is mini (no cupcake papers needed) and the second is regular (cupcake papers recommended). So get your cupcake pans out…I hope you are as intrigued with this concept as I am!
White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Mini Chocolate Cupcakes Inside (Makes 18)
Chocolate Mini Cupcakes
3/4 cup of my favorite gluten free flour blend
1/4 t. xanthan gum
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup canola oil
1 T. vinegar
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. instant coffee grounds
Mix dry and wet ingredients separately. Incorporate the two, mixing until well combined. Spray with gluten-free non-stick cooking spray and fill 18 spots in your mini cupcake pan approximately 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes.
Cool on a rack and prepare ganache topping.
Chocolate Ganache
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 T. skim milk
Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Whisk in milk. Once cupcakes are cool, invert and dip the top into the ganache. Turn back over and place on cooling rack. Once ganache is set just a bit, place them in the refrigerator. These will need to be chilled before inserting them in the large cupcake.
White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. my favorite gluten-free flour blend
1/2 t. xanthan gum
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla bean paste
6 oz. fresh raspberries, cut in half
1/4 cup skim milk
3/4 c. Classic White Chocolate Chips
Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until well incorporated. Add eggs, flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, milk and vanilla bean paste. Stir in the fresh raspberries (they will break apart a bit, which is fine). Finally add the white chocolate chips.
Place cupcake papers in 18 spots in your cupcake pans. Spoon just a tiny bit of the white chocolate raspberry batter into the bottom of the cupcake paper. This works as glue to hold the mini chocolate cupcake in the center of the cup.
Next place one chocolate mini cupcake in the center of the cupcake spot. Spoon the white chocolate raspberry batter around the chocolate cupcake, as well as over the top. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes. When toothpick testing cupcakes to see if they are done, test around the edges, as the center is the pre-baked chocolate mini cupcake.
Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla bean paste
4 or 5 fresh raspberries, plus 18 additional raspberries for top of cupcake
1 to 2 Tablespoons milk
Using electric mixer, cream butter and slowly add powdered sugar. Once well blended, add vanilla bean paste and raspberries. Slowly add milk, using only a little at a time to reach the desired consistency of frosting. Pipe onto top of cupcakes, topping each cupcake with one whole raspberry. (The raspberries, while imparting a tiny bit of flavor to the frosting, are more for the color.)
White chocolate shavings may be added if you desire.
Here is the finished cupcake, from the outside.
And here’s the view of the inside. Yum!
The ganache on the chocolate mini cupcake took on an interesting texture after being baked. It remained slightly gooey, but almost acted like a glue, melding the white chocolate and the chocolate batters together. The top of the white chocolate cupcake developed an interesting color as it baked, almost a green tint, which was apparently due to the chocolate peeking thru and melding with the white chocolate batter. I am excited to try more cake-in-a-cake ideas to see how different mixtures blend together!
This week’s Sweet Friend is Larry. Larry is my friend Laurie‘s husband. I met Larry because his wife drove the same kind of car as me and we belonged to a car club. I know, I promised months ago to stop writing about my car friends, but they are so much fun I just can’t help it!
Like many of my other friends that I met because of that silly little car, Larry and Laurie no longer own that little car. So now we go to movies together. Last year, Larry and Laurie went to over 100 movies at the theatre. We went to a movie together on Thanksgiving night. Much more fun than hanging out with the family in their tryptophan-induced comas!
When I surprise my friends with sweets, I get some funny reactions. Usually it’s like what Larry said to me, “I wish I would have worn a nicer shirt.” Really? I think Larry’s shirt is just fine and have never once thought my friends hair looked bad, pants fit funny or any of the other funny comments I have heard over the last 39 weeks.
I brought cupcakes to a movie (Catfish, which I think you should see) and Larry had no idea I was bringing them. I wonder, what exactly do my friends wish they were wearing in these photos that I snap with my cell phone? Formal attire? Or at least a button down shirt? That’s part of the joy of this journey, capturing my friends as they really are, surprised, in a parking lot in a Kansas suburb, in front of a car that is not theirs, holding cupcakes.
Yes! To Catfish, Larry & Laurie, and cupcakes inside of cupcakes. You are such an artist, using every part of life as your amazing canvas.