#SundayNightBaking: White Wine Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing

Here is the recipe first before I spend 4 and a half pages talking about my 4 year old's dance recital this past weekend and my dog's explosive diarrhea.

Cupcakes

Large Bowl
2 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder

Medium Bowl
225g butter, softened
1 1/2 Cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 Cup Sweet white wine
6 egg whites, whipped to solid white foam

Icing

400g icing sugar

125g butter

250g cream cheese

half cup raspberry reduction

           1 cup raspberries

           1/4 cup water

           2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp Sweet White Wine

*note - this recipe is halved from the one I actually made, I made way too much and now I have a pickle jar full of icing sitting in my fridge.

I have to give credit to the gals at www.wearenotmartha.com for the recipe, (their post is here: http://www.wearenotmartha.com/2011/02/white-wine-cupcakes) I switched it up a bit towards the end but I appreciate their to-the-point recipe writing that's so hard to find on pinterest. There are in fact recipes burried in their 2000 word essays on renovating the guest bathroom. 
 I had just gotten a really great bottle of Hungarian wine that was just a bit too strong for me to drink on it's own from a friend, so I figured if I was going to defile the wine by making it a schorle I might as well put it into cupcakes for my weekly bake-a-thon. 

Hungarian words

I have gotten into the habit of baking Sunday nights and then pawning off the results to my husband's team at work on Monday mornings. It makes their Mondays a little less Monday-y and makes me a little more not morbidly obese. I get to satisfy my end-of-week idle hands, they get to further their delicious journey to diabetes. Win-win.

WINECAKES

First step, combine the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. I do not own a mixer nor the patience to sift or add ingredients slowly so I basically threw them in and attacked them with a wooden spoon. It all worked out so, just make sure it's thoroughly mixed in the end and you're good.

One for you, two for me

Pre-egg batter pro photography

 For the wet ingredients, make sure you have separated 6 egg whites and then whip them up. You can separate them with some kind of device, crack the shell and pass the yolk back and forth into either half, or do what I do and pour it into your hand, straining the whites through your fingers so that you hold the entire baby chicken embryo in your palm and feel like a god. I have saved all my yolks in a jar for another recipe that I will post about later. Wash your hands first though ya nasty.

Bluuuugh accept your fate unfertilized bird cells

Next, whip up the yolks. The original recipe called for a stand mixer and whipping them until "soft peaks form". I wasn't sure what that was but after googling I determined that I'd never be able to whip that long and fast with my puny human stamina so I just whipped them by hand until they looked like beer foam which I feel is a way more realistic description than "soft peaks".

close enough

Mix your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and take a whisk to it ensuring that the batter is smooth, and looks like a thick pancake batter.

thoroughly mixed batter. Photo not artistic enough.

Oooh yeah sexy close-up batter

These cupcakes get SUPER fluffy because of the egg white base, so only fill the cupcakes about 3/4 of the way. (two tablespoons per cup for me). Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

ICING!

I wish my icing came out fluffier but I have learned that I grossly underestimate my powdered sugar measurements and that I should spring for an electric mixer if I really ever want to get that light fluffy icing, but I don't have one yet so I'll just have to deal. So if you want fluffy, add more powdered sugar and whip the shit out of it with a mechanical whipping device.

First reduce the raspberries. 1/4 cup of water per 1 cup of raspberries. I used frozen. Reduce to a third on medium heat and add half a lemon's worth of lemon juice or 2 tablespoons. You can also add wine to this part of the recipe however the alcohol will evaporate from the wine and in that case what's the point.

These are frozen raspberries in a small pot

Extreme closeup of reduction. Actually a little gross.

Add that to the butter and the icing sugar, then add as much wine as you want. Add more sugar for thicker/fluffier icing. I have a huge food processor that isn't technically a mixer for baking but it contained an attachment that was for mashing potatoes so I just used that. 

Ooh shiny

I'm very organized

Pull em out, ice em' up, et voila. Winey raspberry cupcakes. You can also add the raspberry reduction to the batter, and the icing can be used in lots of other ways. Cupcakes, cake filling, scones, or pouring it on your head.

Enjoy!

The staggering difference in sizes is due to my estimation on how full the cups should be.

The riiiise!