Raspberry chocolate chip cake
I saw these cupcakes on Georgetown Cupcake’s Instagram feed and decided to whip up a batch myself. After searching through dozens of recipes, I settled on a Martha Stewart recipe for chocolate chip cupcakes and a bowl of her raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream. This raspberry chocolate chip cake is a perfect Valentine’s Day treat. The cake is sweet while the egg whites give it a nice lightness. The buttercream adds a subtle tartness to the raspberry chocolate chip cake.
Since her recipe makes 30 cupcakes, I decided to bake two 9 inch round cakes. My first attempt of the recipe wasn’t very good. I forgot to line my cake pans, so the cake fell apart. My meringue buttercream also didn’t come together too well (some of the butter was too soft while some wasn’t soft enough), so I threw in powdered sugar to tighten things up. I have found that Swiss meringue buttercream is quite finicky. If your buttercream doesn’t look right, I would recommend this video covering how to fix seized buttercream. Normally, you’ll need to heat or cool depending on what your buttercream looks like. It sounds really crazy, but the hair dryer trick actually works.
Ingredients
Chocolate chip (cup)cakes:
3 1/4 cups plus 1 tbsp. cake flour, divided
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. milk
1 3/4 sticks of softened butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites at room temperature (about 1 cup)
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream
5 large egg whites
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
Pinch of salt
4 sticks softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
6 ounces fresh raspberries
Instructions
Chocolate chip cake
- Preheat oven to 350. Spray and line cupcake tins or 9 inch rounds.
- Reserve 1 tablespoon of cake flour. Combine cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir together milk and vanilla.
- Cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy.
- Stir in one-third of flour, half of milk, one-third of flour, half of milk, and one-third of flour, until just combined.
- Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into batter in thirds.
- Toss chocolate chips in reserved flour and fold gently into batter. Divide between pans.
- Bake cupcakes for around 22 minutes or cakes for 34 minutes until golden brown and set. Cool completely before frosting.
Raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream
- Combine egg whites, sugar, and salt in a heatproof mixing bowl over simmering water until warm and sugar is dissolved. Mixture should feel smooth when rubbed between two fingers.
- Remove from heat and begin to beat on mixer speed low. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form. Continue until mixture is glossy and completely cool.
- Decrease speed to medium-low and add butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. If using a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
- Stir in vanilla. Add raspberries and mix until desired consistency (Martha says streaky, Mac didn’t like the berry chunks).
- Frost cooled cakes and garnish with remaining raspberries.
Try some other Valentine’s Day recipes! Caramel kiss shortbread cookies | Cherry cordial brownie bites | Chocolate chip cannoli cake | Cherry vanilla cupcakes
