indulge a little

my job has the most amazing cook.  heis this crazy loveable Jamaican guy who was possibly put onto this earth to cook.  hemakes me dinner every night at work and  i can taste all of the love he puts into preparing it.  today is his birthday and i felt like it was time for him to indulge a little so i whipped up tart raspberry cupcakes with a smooth and creamy white chocolate frosting.  this is a twist on a classic vanilla cupcake recipe (or truth be told, i baked this after working an 11 hour day and getting stuck in 45 minutes of traffice -- USE A BOXED CAKE, you will be adding so many extra flavors and so much love no one will know)

i had originally intended on making this whole she-bang from scratch, but lets be real .. after working 2 pm - 12 am and then getting stuck in 45 minutes of traffic, i just wanted to crank out some cupcakes and somehow make it to bed by 3 am.  prior to going to work, i put about 2 cups of frozen raspberries in a bowl with some sugar (this is called mascerating them)  i added juice from 1/4 of a lemon and allowed it to sit.  the berries leached out all of their juice making this super sweet syrup like liquid. 

for the cake itself, i luckily had a boxed vanilla cake on hand so i just followed the directions, however you are going to cut back on the amount of water you use which will intensify the raspberry flavor, not allowing the water to dilute the berries.  most box cake recipes call for 1 cup of water.  if you were able to extract 1/3 cup of juice then you would only want 2/3 cup of water.  basically however much juice you get just fill the remainder of the cup with water.  blend this into the cake mix and bake according to directions.

for the frosting -- in your kitchen air or with your hand mixer combine 1/2 stick of room temp butter, 1/2 stick of room temp cream cheese and 4 oz of greek plain yogurt.  the greek yogurt adds a tang that helps cut through the sweetness of the white chocolate. when your butter and cream cheese and yogurt are combined smoothly begin to slowly add the powder sugar about 2 cups in total.  (if frosting looks to sticky just add a touch more sugar remember its easy to add not as easy to take away)  melt 5 oz of white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals.  the chocolate will melt very quickly (faster than milk or dark chocolate does)  stir between each interval. when the chocolate has fully melted continue to stir it rapidly, this will cool it down but also keep it from re-hardening.  once the chocolate has cooled, add it to the frosting and mix to combine.  frost your cupcakes and garnish with white chocolate shavings. YUM