Cosmo Cupcakes - Take 1

For my first baking post, I decided to recreate the Crumbs cupcakes I was sad to miss when Sex and the City premiered. As anyone who has seen SATC can attest, the most prominent drink in the show is the Cosmopolitan, and the bakery made a non-alcoholic cupcake rendition. Their creation was a hot pink raspberry cake with pale lime frosting and a rim of pink sugar. Unable to find a raspberry cake recipe I trusted, I adapted the Sprinkles' strawberry cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart Living. By accident, I used double the raspberry puree than the recipe called for, but it turned out better than when I made the strawberry ones for my birthday this year.

Straining the puree into the milk

Cupcake Ingredients:
2/3 cup raspberry puree (either fresh or frozen-thawed- works)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature

Cupcake Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with paper liners
3. Puree raspberries in blender or food processor
4. Strain puree to remove seeds and combine with milk and vanilla
5. Cream butter on medium-high speed in mixer until pale and creamy. Add sugar and beat on high until well-combined and fluffy (about 5-7 minutes). Add eggs one at a time and beat well
6. Whisk dry ingredients together to combine
7. Slowly add dry ingredients to mixer on low. Alternate with with puree/milk mixture. Do not overmix!!
8. Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until cupcake tops spring back when touched- Approximately 20-24 minutes. Let cupcakes cool completely before icing

Frosting Ingredients
1 stick butter
3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 pound sifted confectioner's sugar (1/2 a standard bag)
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 drops green food coloring

Frosting Directions
1. Cream together butter and cream
2. Slowly add sugar, mixing well
3. Add lime juice and food coloring

My friend Lauren was entirely skeptical when I called her this morning to let her know what kind of cupcakes she could expect to find when she came over tonight for the Oscars. She wanted more vanilla (which is my favorite, but I just made them last week), and claimed that because she doesn't like red velvet (for the record, my red velvet are the best), she wasn't going to like these. The only similarity between the two is the color family, and the batter even turned out to be more purple than pink.

My purple raspberry cake batter

Next time I make this cake, I would like for it to be more bright pink and less purple. The only way I could think to achieve this would be substitute the raspberry puree with raspberry extract and a lot of pink dye. Even if I keep the raspberry puree next time, I think I'm going to add at least 1 tsp raspberry extract for a more pronounced raspberry flavor.

Slightly blurry, but fully cooked

The frosting was perfect. What made a big difference, I believe, was that I sifted the powdered sugar before adding it to the butter/cream cheese. It had a less granulated feel than a lot of frostings usually have. Lauren and I both agreed it tasted like lime sherbet. After frosting the cupcakes, I rolled the edges in pink sugar to replicate the sugar that rims a martini glass.

This was actually one of the easiest baking experiences I've had in a while, probably because I wasn't attempting to make 120 mini cupcakes in a 4 hour period before 20 guests arrive like I usually am. Additionally, I was very conscious of keeping my kitchen clean during the baking process so everyone didn't have to know what state of disaster my kitchen is usually in during my baking experiences. I'm trying not to embarass my mom here and lead her friends to believe she taught me poor housecleaning skills.

The finished product

I even won Lauren over with the cupcakes; she took three home with her. She probably would have still preferred vanilla, but these were pretty good considering it was my first attempt at this recipe and flavor combination.