Cupcakes for Hillness

I am lucky enough to have remained friends with my high school girlfriends, we have been friends for over a decade now, and are still really close.

Now Hillness is a strange name you might think... but having two Jessica's in a group of friends is a little confusing , in an effort to make things a little less complicated, I was nicknamed B, and her Hillness.

Hillness - Such a gorgeous girl!

Hillness was the first of us who made the big leap and bought a house! We are all so proud of her, and perhaps secretly a little envious hehe. After much nagging, Hillness finally threw a housewarming party, and a fun one it was too! I offered to make cupcakes for the occasion, and Hillness chose the flavours...

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes, which I change a little to
Chocolate Cookie & Raspberry Cupcakes

Orange Blueberry Cupcakes, a slight variation on the
Lemon Blueberry recipe I posted

And finally I made a third batch, vanilla rainbow cupcakes
because every time I see rainbows, I think of Hillness!

The Chocolate Cookies & Raspberry cupcakes were adapted from a recipe in 'Crazy About Cupcakes' (Fittingly a gift to me from Hillness a couple of Birthdays ago!). They were quite tasty, so I would like to share the recipe with you:


Choc Cookie & Raspberry Cupcakes - adapted from 'Crazy About Cupcakes'
(the original recipe had a misprint in the method which I have corrected)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2/3 cup chocolate cookies, lightly crushed
1/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (thawed on paper towel then lightly dusted with flour)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in the milk. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 sec­onds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Carefully fold in the crushed cookies and raspberries, don't over mix.
5. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 min­utes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

For the frosting I made a butter cream and added more raspberries to it, then topped the cupcakes with more crushed chocolate cookies.


So I just wanted to finish up by thanking everyone that visited my Mad Tea Party, and left such kind and sweet comments, and especially welcome my new followers, I truely appreciate your support! Also, thank you to my sister Caitlin for kindly lending me her new camera to play with lately!

I finally have an entire week off of work, and plan to sew my little heart out! I'll keep you updated! <3