Raspberry Cheesecake Chocolate Cupcakes

You may think I'm a weirdo for saying this, but I'm not a big fan of desserts that are head-to-toe drenched in chocolate. I feel that the flavor can get a bit overwhelming, especially when you have a chocolate base from a chocolate cake, chocolate fillings from chocolate chips, and chocolate toppings from frosting and syrup. Luckily, there are two ingredients that pair wonderfully with chocolate that help balance the rich flavor: cream cheese and raspberries. The tanginess of cream cheese and tartness of the raspberries help cut through the rich sweetness of the chocolate. You can see a myriad of raspberry + chocolate desserts and cheesecake brownie recipes all over the internet these days—as well as menu items at restaurants and bakeries. 

So I thought... why not combine the two? Raspberry cheesecakes are also a thing, so you're literally getting the best of three (!) worlds. The motivation to try to make something like this actually came from craving a certain black bottom cupcake from a bakery that always runs out of them. This happened with the guava pastries too. Guess I'm always craving what I can't have...

Oh! I should mention I brought another ingredient into the mix for the chocolate cupcake at the bottom, just to add an interesting kick:

And -drum roll- that ingredient is... instant coffee! You might have a bad impression of instant coffee, but Asian coffee brands do these instant latte mixes really well. For example, UCC coffee has a cafe au lait mix (pictured above) that you can just mix into hot water without milk and even a creme brulee latte mix that tastes absolutely delicious. Because there's sugar combined in the instant coffee mix already, you won't have to worry about the instant coffee making your batter bitter.

You can purchase these kinds of instant coffee mixes from most Asian grocery stores. I got mine from Nijiya Market.

I don't care if you hate the word moist—I'm going to use this word a lot in this post. It's a perfectly valid term to describe a delicious cake. In my case, I think chocolate cakes are best when they are super moist. To ensure that the cake is moist, it's important that you add adequate amounts of oil, water, and butter. I took the proportions from this recipe, and added two extra tablespoons of butter just in case. Because extra butter doesn't hurt (your tastebuds, at least). And we all know butter is at the bottom of the food pyramid, obviously.

I sectioned off my box of raspberries among the cream cheese topping mixture and the chocolate cake mixture. Adding raspberries to the mixture will help add that extra bit of moisture to the cake.

Fill up each cupcake two-thirds of the way with the chocolate cake mixture, then top it off with the cream cheese mixture. This will create a beautiful shiny top to each cupcake—so you can ditch the frosting and the piping bags.  You can check if the cupcakes are ready by sticking a toothpick into a cake and seeing if it doesn't pick up the chocolate filling (seeing the cream cheese on the toothpick is normal).

Raspberry Cheesecake Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

Chocolate cake:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• Half a packet of instant coffee mix (optional, Asian brand preferred)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 box of raspberries

Cheescake topping:

• 8 oz box cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 box of raspberries

Takes 35 min, Makes 14.

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300˚F (148˚C). Take the cream cheese out of the fridge to soften


2. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, instant coffee, baking soda, and salt) together. If you're adding an instant coffee mix that is sweetened, subtract a tablespoon from the cup of sugar to ensure the cake isn't overwhelmingly sweet


3. Heat the 1/2 cup of water and dissolve 2 tbsp of butter. Combine the water and butter mixture with all the other wet ingredients (milk, oil, egg, vanilla)


4. Combine the dry mixture with the wet mixture and whisk until the mixture forms into a ribbon-like texture, making sure that everything is well incorporated and that there are no lumps


5. Slice the raspberries into halves and carefully fold in half into the chocolate cake mixture, saving the other half for the cream cheese topping
 

6. For the cheesecake topping, combine the cream cheese with the sugar and egg. Carefully fold in the second half of the raspberries


7. Fill a cupcake pan with liners. Fill each cup two-thirds of the way with the chocolate cake mixture, then top off each cupcake with the cream cheese mixture, making sure to leave a little space at the top (since the cupcakes will rise)


8. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. You can check if the chocolate cake is cooked through by sticking a toothpick into a cake and seeing if it doesn't pick up the chocolate mixture (seeing the cream cheese on the toothpick is normal)

I brought these into the office and they were gone in a blink of an eye... I'm actually quite sad since I only had one and wanted more ): But according to my coworkers, the cake was indeed very moist!

These actually would've been great for Valentines Day! Maybe next year I'll make them for somebody—or even better, someone can make these for me ;) That's just a hopeful dream at this point.

♥ Cindy