Raspberry Cream Cupcakes

This recipe came from Your Homebased Mom and I made them for Valentine's Day to bring in to work. They were really good for being so simply. Really, the topping was just powdered sugar and that worked out really well. The only thing I had an issue with was the cream filling. I think next time I will use Whipped Cream and just added the berries to it to see how that works out. It should be fluffier, less work and probably less calories too. I'm sure for everyone that didn't mess the cream filling up, this was delicious. I think I added too much powdered sugar or something and it go thick, so my filling ended up just being a kind of icing. Still good, but not as fluffy and when it was icing-like I couldn't get as much onto the cupcake. Anyway, try these out, they're pretty and allow you to add any kind of berry to the cream. I used frozen mixed berries I just put in a pot on the stove and then mashed. But really you could do anything fresh or frozen.

OH, Oh, and the chocolate decorations are super easy to make. The hearts stay together the best out of experience. I tried to make the ends of arrows ( get in? like Cupid?) and I tried to make XO ones and ones that said LOVE. The "love" one stayed pretty well but everything but the hearts are brittle and basically fall apart. That just gets frustrated.

Raspberry Cream Cupcakes

1 white cake mix (I like to use Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe)
1 1/3 C water
3 large egg whites
2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 (6-ounce) containers fresh raspberries, or one bag of frozen raspberries, thawed and drained
1 C heavy whipping cream
1/3 C powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting

Makes between 18-20 cupcakes. Line muffin tins with liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In your mixer beat the cake mix, water, egg whites, melted butter, and extracts in a large bowl for 2 minutes, or until the batter is well blended. Place about 1/3 C of batter in each cupcake liner. Should be about 2/3 full.

Bake the cupcakes until they are very pale golden on top, about 15 minutes. Cool the cupcakes completely.

Using a fork, coarsely mash 1 1/2 containers of raspberries in a medium bowl.In your mixer beat the cream and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar until firm peaks form. Fold the mashed raspberries into the whipped cream.

Remove the muffin papers from the cupcakes and cut the tops off of each cupcake, about 1/2 inch down. Spoon the whipped cream mixture onto the cupcake bottoms. Place the cupcake tops on the cupcakes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with the remaining berries if using fresh.