Vanilla butter (with little surprises in the middle!) cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

Dad complaints I don't eat enough fruits. But honestly I love my fruits in my desserts. Give me anything sweet with fruits any day I would eat it instead of something with chocolate. Call me weird but I'm just being me!lol.

Anyway, I always get myself a packed of raspberries from KLCC each time I am in KL. Why KLCC? Because priceless of raspberry in Isetan Foodhall is cheaper compared to other supermarkets and the berries look fresh. I walked into Ben's Grocer in Solaris the other and to my dismay, I found a packet of raspberries covered in mold! Ewww. The raspberries are either moldy or too pricey in most supermarkets. 

Wanted to make something different with my expensive purchase but with time constraint (because I have an interview tomorrow,fingers crossed I get the job & raspberry can only keep for a maximum of 3 days), I made a little cupcakes with my raspberries and also blueberries. Next time, I will have a recipe (and enough mouths to feed) in mind before buying my raspberries.hehe.

Little surprises in a cupcake that looks like a plain butter cupcake with vanilla buttercream!

Cupcakes: (makes 25 medium size cupcakes)

250g unsalted butter

230g caster sugar + 2 tablespoons

5 'kampung' eggs/small eggs (4 large eggs), separated

250g cake flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoon fresh milk

25 raspberries and blueberries, each

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add yolks one at a time. Mix well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and continue to mix.
4. Turn mixer to low speed and add flour & baking powder into the mixture,mixing until just combined.
5. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks, gradually add one tablespoon of sugar at a time until you get a nice semi marshmallowy mixture. 
6. Fold in milk into the cake batter,then add fold egg whites in three additions.
7. Fill cupcake liners to 1/2 full and insert a raspberry and blueberry in the middle of the cupcake.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. Remove and cool completely.

Vanilla buttercream:

250g unsalted butter,diced at semi room temperature

250g icing sugar,sifted

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (5minutes). Then add vanilla extract and continue to mix for another 3 minutes.

To assemble, place buttercream in a piping bag with a preferred nozzle and Pipe rosettes on your cupcakes and serve immediately.

If you prefer your cupcakes less sweet or feel your cupcakes are overcooked/dry and want it more moist, try pouring a tablespoon of lemon syrup on top cupcakes as soon as you take the cupcakes out of the oven.I tried one cupcake with/without the lemon syrup and preferred the one with the lemon syrup but it's totally optional.

Recipe of lemon syrup follows.

Juice of 2 lemons,strained
5-6 tablespoons caster sugar

Mix the lemon juice and sugar,let aside.

In very humid temperature, I normally leave my butter out for 5 minutes and then cut them into cubes and beat the butter using the paddle attachment. I never leave my butter out for too long cause the buttercream with turn runny quickly.I rather beat butter cubes while it is cold because by the time you have buttercream ready,it is the perfect consistency for frosting the cupcakes.

As soon as they saw a cupcake in my hand, they jumped excitedly to grab my cupcake. My greedy babies.