Mini chocolate-chocolate cupcakes with raspberry and caramel filling
Holly over at PheMomenon is hosting a Blogging For Babies event called Little Wonders. Holly is raising money for the March of Dimes March for Babies in honor of her son Cole. Read all about her story on her blog.
The requirements of the event are simply to make something small. Since you all know I love making cupcakes, I thought mini-cupcakes would be perfect. The truth is, I have supported March of Dimes for quite some time myself. My 13 year old sister was also born premature. I was 14 at the time and remember being very scared. I was so scared in fact, that when the entire family went to see her for the first time in the NICU, I refused to go.
My sister has grown into a wonderful teenager girl (is that even possible?) She’s very intellegent and likes to bake just like me. We enjoy baking together when I see her, which unfortunately, isn’t often enough. Here is the most recent picture of us taken last Christmas. Yes, she’s a tall one.
Back to the cupcakes. I used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe with my favorite chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe (without the chili powder). I made both recipes dairy free (the caramel was not dairy free).
I usually use the cone method to fill cupcakes. I knew this wouldn’t work very well with mini-cupcakes. Instead I used a special cupcake filling tip that came with my piping bag set. It took a while to get the hang of it, but in the end it worked out fine. I filled some with leftover caramel I had and the rest with some leftover raspberry preserves. Both tasted amazing.
Definitely be sure to check out Holly’s story and support her team for the March of Babies.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This looks like such a perfect gift! Are those your homemade marshmallows I spy in the mug?
Of course they are! I seriously can’t justify buying marshmallows anymore. They’re just so easy and SO good homemade. I even whipped up a batch to put on our twice baked sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving.
I really wanted to do this this year for gifts but time escaped me. Looks great!
Soooo here’s the deal- A Boston Food Diary is going to look A LOT like Beantown Baker next week as I steal your recipes 🙂 Looks great Jen!
Why have I never thought about doing this? It looks so easy and it definitely would give me an excuse to make some homemade marshmallows!
That looks like an amazing gift! Making a homemade hot cocoa would definetly save money. Thanks for the recipe(:
Ghirardelli cocoa is very good and your homemade hot cocoa mix …too!!! May you have a special merry Christmas!!!Hugs, Flavia
I have never thought of making my own cocoa mix OR marshmallows. I feel a winter project coming on. Looks delicious!
I have had this bookmarked to make to some gifts for a couple of my girlfriends. So awesome and easy to make!
-Amanda
Loads of thanks to you. I can make everyone happy this Christmas. This recipe is even easy to follow.
Yum! What a great holiday gift idea!