Raspberry Chocolate Bites

Thanks for stopping by What Sharon Eats where I’ll be blogging about all things delicious. And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the launch of this site than to kick it off with a chocolate dessert for my first post, especially when Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. This dessert is decadent and delicious and I promise you will have a hard time stopping once you start eating them. The mascarpone cheese adds a lighter and creamier touch to the whipped topping and the raspberry adds fruity flavor. (You can also use up any leftover holiday sprinkles like I did here) Who doesn’t love raspberry, sprinkles and chocolate together? The cakes only take 12-14 minutes to bake. The assembly takes a bit more time though, so feel free to just turn this into a cupcake recipe if your chocolate cravings are too strong to wait for.

Just a note about the coffee — I usually use coffee in all my chocolate cake recipes, because it adds more depth and enhances the chocolate flavor. For those of you who don’t like the flavor of coffee, don’t worry, you can hardly taste it here. You can substitute the same amount with hot water if you are absolutely opposed to using it, but I would encourage you to try it out first. Even my husband, a coffee atheist, likes it better this way.

The filling makes enough for two batches. You can freeze the leftover frosting and just thaw out in the refrigerator the day before you need to use it.

Raspberry Chocolate Bites

• Prep Time: 60 minutes
• Total Time: 72 minutes
• Yield: 15 cakes 1x
• Category: Dessert

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Cakes

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1–1/2 cups brewed coffee (room temperature)
• 2–1/4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1–1/3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg

Raspberry Filling

• 2 cups mascarpone cheese
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp raspberry extract
• 2–3 tbsp raspberry preserves (to taste)

Chocolate Drizzle

• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (melted and cooled)
• Sprinkles (optional)

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Instructions

Make the Cakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease three 12-cup muffin baking pans.
2. Mix buttermilk with the coffee and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together.
3. Mix the sugar, oil and egg together. Add in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients, alternating batches.
4. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for about 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
5. Once out of the oven, flip the cakes over on a parchment lined baking sheet to cool. This will flatten them a tad.
6. Let them cool before frosting.

To Make the Frosting and Chocolate Drizzle:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the mascarpone, cream, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and salt together at medium speed until peaks form. Set aside.
2. Pour out the chocolate chips into a small bowl and microwave on low power for around 2 minutes or until the chips melt. Set aside to let it cool to room temperature.

To Assemble:

1. Spread the mascarpone frosting on the flat side of every other cake. Trim the cakes with a bread knife if necessary to get a perfectly flat cake. (This is where my husband comes in and eats the trimmings.) Press the other cakes on top of the frosted cakes, so you get nice cupcake sandwiches. Dip the top half of each cupcake sandwich into the melted chocolate bowl. Top with colorful sprinkles.

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For a quicker version, you can avoid sandwiching the cakes together and simply top each cake with the mascarpone frosting and set the melted chocolate on the side for dipping. You can also just have a cupcake decorating party with the kids but do at your own risk.

Loosely Adapted from Food and Wine.