Cubicle kitchen: Black Raspberry Cocoa Cupcakes

If I was a negative person, I would be sad about all the things I will never have time to do.  All of the books I won't read, the projects I won't knit, and the recipes I won't bake.  Simply because my shelf, stash, and recipe box is already so full of great stuff.  Maybe if I won the lottery (in an unexplained miracle, because I never play the lottery) I could devote all of my time to stacking books in the 'read' column and casting off everything I cast on.  But all I can do it bake one recipe at a time.

And that's nothing to be sad about, because the results are always delicious.  This week I decided to try one of the recipes from the page-a-day cupcake calendar I grabbed on clearance at Half Price Books earlier this year.  Every day I peel back a page and get another recipe, or version of a recipe that switches up some of the flavors of yesterday to try something new.  I was drawn to it because it used fat-free milk, that wasn't one of my alterations.  And I love baking with berries.

The changes I made started with using some frozen black raspberries that I had stored away.  I chopped them a little, just because I was turning them into mini cupcakes and didn't want them to be too big.  This made baking time a complete guess, because the directions were for 20 minutes originally, but I was miniaturizing them, and then switching fresh for frozen fruit.  I wasn't sure what was going to win out in terms of lengthening or shortening the perfect time, so I just kept an eye on them.

Then I decided to use the same frosting that I had for those Black Velvet Sandwich Cookies, so I thought I might as well substitute a little cocoa into the cake batter.  It doesn't make much of a difference, but I didn't have more cocoa on hand, and I didn't want to further jeopardize the baking potential of the batter.  As it was, it added that little bit of extra richness that would tie the cake in with the frosting on top.  If I make these again, I might venture into adding some chocolate chips into the batter, just for the sake of it.

Another successful outing for my baked goods at the office, another recipe crossed off the list.  What's not to be happy about?

Black Raspberry Cocoa Cupcakes
(Adapted from Glazed Blueberry-Lime Cupcakes from The Cupcake Calendar 2013 and 500 Cupcakes)
makes about 5 dozen mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons margarine, softened
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons Brummel and Brown
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 2 cups (minus 1 Tablespoon) cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa (I used Dutch processed)
• 1 cup frozen black raspberries, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried orange zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream margarine, butter, and spread together with the sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla and milk, mixing well after each.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.  Add to wet ingredients slowly beating until incorporated.  Fold in the raspberries and zest.
4. Fill the mini cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter and place in the oven.  Let bake for 15-20 minutes.