Nothing says Valentine’s Day quite like one of these Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting – and of course the chocolate hearts are a must! These are some of the most decadent cupcakes I’ve ever made – and in such a good way! They are rich and luscious and oh so irresistibly chocolatey!
This is one of my new favorite chocolate cupcake recipes (and if you want to make it more of a milder milk chocolate cupcake just reduce the cocoa to 2 Tbsp and up the flour to 2 more Tbsp. I tested them out both ways but preferred the darker version here paired with the sweetness of the raspberry frosting). They are somewhat dense and deliciously fudgy and you’ll want to make them again and again.
This Raspberry Buttercream has such a vibrant raspberry flavor. It took me a while to figure out how to get a concentrated berry flavor in frosting (like this Strawberry Buttercream Frosting) but I found you can either use freeze-dried berries or puree fresh berries and reduce the puree in a saucepan to a more concentrated amount.
It packs more flavor without having to add in so much of that runny liquid (because too much liquid in frosting of course is just not good – plus this reduced version yields a thicker puree). I do like the freeze-dried version I once shared but I’ve traded that in because I prefer the flavor of the fresh berries in frosting – even though it does take a bit more effort.
And of course, I can’t get enough of the gorgeous natural color in the frosting (note that sometimes yours may not be quite as deep pink, it just depends on the berries. The darker ones tend to give more color, either way, though it should still be quite pink and you shouldn’t need any food coloring). It’s practically Valentine’s day already, so there, you have an excuse to make cupcakes today so get to it :).
