Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• Vanilla Cake Mix (I like to use Duncan Hines French Vanilla)
• 3 Large Eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup of water
• 2 full cups frozen unsweetened raspberries, thaw with 1/4 cup sugar (or thaw sweetened raspberries with out adding sugar, unsweeted was what I had on hand)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1-1/4 cups water*
• 6 Tbsp flour (or 3 T. corn starch – I didn’t have corn starch)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup real butter (not margarine) *room temperature
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• paste food coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and place 24 cupcake papers in a muffin pan.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave.
3. Add cake mix, eggs and water to the butter in large bowl and mix on low for 1 min. Then, mix on high for 1 min. (your batter should be thick and creamy - not thin and runny like it is when you follow the box instructions)
4. Fill cupcake papers – tip: use an icecream scooper! – One scoop is just the right amount per cupcake!
5. Place cupcakes on middle rack in the oven for 20 minutes (or until inserted toothpick comes out clean)
6. Let cool.
7. In a medium sauce pan, combine water*, sugar, flour and lemon juice and mix well. If there is any juice in your raspberries, drain the juice and add to water = 1-1/4 liquid. (I didn’t have much juice at all, but if you by sweetened raspberries, they may yield more sauce.)
8. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens.
9. Cool completely.
10. Stir in thawed raspberries.
11. Yields approximately 2 cups of filling.
12. (I made 1/2 of this recipe because I didn’t want to fill all of my cupcakes.)
13. Bake cupcakes and cool completely
14. Cut out a small cone shaped section in the center of the cupcake
15. add raspberry filling to the hole
16. replace the tops (just do the best you can- they don’t have to be perfect)
17. Now they are ready to frost.
18. Thoroughly cream butter and shortening . Beat in the vanilla. Add sugar, one cup at a time until blended. When the sugar is completely beaten in and the sides of the bowl are scraped down, add the whipping cream, beating at the highest speed until super fluffy, about one minute.
19. If you wish to add color to your frosting, like I did, use the gel paste food coloring. It’s stronger and more vibrant. Add frosting to a pastry bag with your favorite tip and frost! I only filled 1/2 of my cupcakes, so I frosted the filled cupcakes in white frosting with sprinkles….the cupcakes with the pink and yellow frosting do not have filling.