These Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes are the perfect treat all summer long! Delicious vanilla cupcakes are topped with a raspberry buttercream frosting that will have you licking the spoon! Love raspberries? Try these raspberry favorites: Raspberry Lemon Muffins, Chocolate Raspberry Cake, and Lemon Raspberry Trifle!
Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes
One of my favorite things about summer is the enjoying fruit at the peek of it’s season. As delicious as fresh fruit is on it’s own, it’s only natural that I love to turn summer’s bounty into dessert! Vanilla desserts lend themselves so nicely to an accompaniment of fruit, and for these pretty pink cupcakes I’ve simply topped my favorite Vanilla Cupcakes with a delicious Raspberry Buttercream.
I recently shared a similar pairing, with my Blackberry Vanilla Cupcakes in a Jar. Certainly either recipe would be lovely as a single cupcake, cupcake in a jar, or even a cake.
Do you have a favorite summer fruit? My favorite is usually the one I’m eating (at any given moment)! =)
More Cupcakes To Try
How to Make Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes
Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil vegetable canola or extra light olive oil
- 1/3 cup milk whole or low fat but avoid fat free
- 1/3 cup sour cream full fat or light but avoid fat free
Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter 1 1/2 sticks
- 8 oz cream cheese 1 block
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons fresh raspberry puree from about 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
Instructions
Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add the milk, then the rest of the flour and the sour cream. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.
- The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
- Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.
- Frost as desired when fully cool.
Raspberry Buttercream
- In the bowl of a large electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
- Add the cream cheese, and beat further until the butter and cream cheese are fully incorporated and smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
- Add vanilla.
- Again, with the mixer on low, add the raspberry puree, one tablespoon at a time.
- Continue beating, increasing speed to medium for about 30 seconds.
Notes
A note about Cake Flour- Cake Flour has a lower protein content than traditional all-purpose flour, which results in a more tender, delicate crumb in the finished product. If you can not find or access cake flour, feel free to substitute as necessary, but your results will vary from the original recipe.
Nutrition
Raspberry Buttercream
Ingredients
Instructions
- In the bowl of a large electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
- Add the cream cheese, and beat further until the butter and cream cheese are fully incorporated and smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
- Add vanilla.
- Again, with the mixer on low, add the raspberry puree, one tablespoon at a time.
- Continue beating, increasing speed to medium for about 30 seconds.
- Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, and the moisture in your berries, the frosting may be on the soft side. I put the whole bowl of finished frosting in the refrigerator for about 1 hour to help the frosting firm up. If needed, you could add an additional cup of powdered sugar.
Do you think this buttercream would be good on almond cupcakes?
Yes, go for it!
I’ve just seen these cupcakes on a facebook page which isn’t yours??
Can you taste the cream cheese flavor in the frosting? It looks so delicious but I can’t stand cream cheese and am nervous to try it.
Would 3 tbsp of rasberry puree make the frosting very watery & hard to pipe? I tried your recipe before. It was really hard to pipe despite putting in the fridge for 2 hrs. Also, can u tell me in metric measurement what is 3/4 cup butter? I used a conversion table from the webby when I did it the last time. Wonder if it’s the wrong measurement of the butter that made the earlier batch watery
Instead of raspberries can you use strawberries?
what kind of tip did you used to frost the buttercream?
Hi,
I am based out of India and unfortunately fresh raspberries are not available here. Can the puree be made of frozen raspberries instead? I guess the flavor would not be that great but can anything be done to enhance the flavor?
Thanks.
Thank you so much for the frosting recipe, I topped chocolate cupcakes with it for my girls’ birthday and it was SOOOOOOO delicious!!!! Everybody raved!
I made these on the weekend and everyone loved them, including me (of course). Thanks so much for the recipes. I love your site!
Making this for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow…luckily she’s young enough she doesn’t really care about the flavor. 🙂
How long would you saw to cook them as a cake? the same amount of time?
Kylie, I haven’t listed baking times for cakes, because it will vary quite a bit based on the size pans you use and the amount of batter in each pan. If you are baking in an 8″ pan, certainly the baking time will be quite a bit longer than for cupcakes. The cake is done when it has a slight dome, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter. Happy Baking!