Happy Birthday Ellie!

My babygirl was born 5 years ago today on the first day of Spring.

To start the celebration early, I let her stay up too late last night helping me make cupcakes. Her special request? Raspberry frosting.

OK. That was kind of a surprise, but I had a bag of raspberries in the freezer and this Mom can innovate. I made up this recipe on the spot and darn it if it didn’t turn out pretty fantastic! This frosting is sweet and tangy with a strong raspberry flavor.

But perhaps best of all is the color! Look at that festive bright pink courtesy of the pigment in the natural berries. No food coloring required.

Here are the ingredients for frosting for 20-24 cupcakes. If you are concerned about having enough (as I often am), you may want to increase the recipe by 50% or even double it. It is never a bad thing to have extra frosting, right?:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 ounces of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1-2 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature (if needed)

Put the raspberries in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring with a spoon until they break down into a sauce. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to take out the seeds and then put the seedless sauce back in the pot and slowly simmer until it reduces to a 1/4 cup of very concentrated raspberry sauce, stirring pretty often. This took about 20 minutes for me. Take your time, you don’t want the sugars to scorch as the puree gets more concentrated.

Check out that shocking blood red. I must remember this when Halloween rolls around again.

Set aside to cool. When the raspberry flavoring is room temperature, cream the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer using a paddle attachment. Then add about 2 cups of powdered sugar, the raspberry sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice and a pinch of kosher salt. Process until smooth. Add another 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and continue to mix until it is spreading consistency adding room temperature milk if needed to make it less stiff.

Taste the frosting. If you like it as is, you’re done. If you want it to be sweeter, add additional powdered sugar and milk to get to the flavor you want.

TA DA! You can’t buy that in a can. If you are curious, the recipe I used for the yellow cake came from the Buttercup Cookbook.

I bet you could use this fruit concentrate method for all manner of frostings flavored with berries and other fruits. The mind boggles. Blackberry Lime? Kiwi? Mango?

Other suggestions people?