Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Meringue Frosting

Light and toasted marshmallow-y frosting, moist vanilla cake (that’s low-fat too!), and warm gooey raspberry sauce in the center… Do I really need to keep going?!

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-Makes 12-15 cupcakes-

For the cupcakes you’ll need:

½ cup sugar

½ cup Stevia (sugar substitute)

1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 eggs (room temperature)

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup skim milk

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

For raspberry sauce:

¼ cup sugar

A pint and a half of fresh raspberries

3 tsp lemon juice

For meringue frosting:

4 egg whites

¼ tsp cream of tartar

2/3 cup sugar

12 raspberries to garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, butter, and eggs.

Slowly stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Add vanilla extract last and mix until all ingredients are well blended.

Distribute batter evenly among cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let them cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes. Pop cupcakes out and let them cool another 10-15 minutes on a cooling rack. While you’re waiting you can start on the raspberry sauce and frosting!

(1.) In a small sauce pan over medium to high heat, stir together sugar, raspberries, and lemon juice. (2. & 3.) Mash raspberries and continue to cook until it comes to a boil. Strain sauce through a wire mesh strainer and discard seeds. (4.) Pour raspberry sauce back into saucepan and simmer on low for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool. Continue to stir every 5 minutes or so to thicken the sauce up.

While we’re waiting on the sauce to cool, let’s get back to those cupcakes!

Once they’ve cooled, take a butter knife and carve out a cone from the top of the cupcakes (like cutting the top for a Jack O’ Lantern).

Cut the bottom tip off the cone and discard (or eat!). When the raspberry sauce has cooled enough, spoon into the wells you created in the cupcake.

Put the top back on and place the entire cupcake back into the muffin tin. It sounds strange, but you’ll see why after the next step!

In a large bowl beat egg whites (see below if you need help separating the whites from the yolks) and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

I’ve seen people use a weird bottle method where they try to suck up the yolk, but it just seems silly to me and this method always works for me..

Crack the egg, pull open with your thumbs, and keep the yolk in one half of the eggshell. Now carefully transfer the yolk back and forth between the two halves until all of the whites have dropped into the bowl. Use the edge of the shell to “cut” the egg whites off if you need to.

Here’s the during and after shots of what your egg whites should look like..

Next, add the sugar about a tablespoon at a time while mixing on high speed until stiff peaks form (like the top of an ice cream cone!).

Use a piping bag or spoon meringue onto the top of the cupcakes. You can garnish with a raspberry now or wait until after they come out of the oven. They still stick to the frosting even after being baked.

Place cupcakes back in the oven at 350 degrees F and bake for 10 minutes or until frosting starts to turn a light brown on the edges.

Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then pop them out and let them finish cooling on the rack another 5-10 minutes. Serve warm or refrigerate for an hour or overnight before serving.