Molten Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling - Preparing for Valentine's Day

The second month of this New Year has kicked in, and we all know that February is the month to celebrate love, as people all around the world have begun to plan for the Valentine's Day. Love and chocolate go hand in hand, so its natural that I decided to practise my hand at some chocolate art to prepare for my valentine. I always wanted to make Molten Cupcakes, those sweet delights with a gooey chocalatey center that melts in your mouth! But as I was ready to go all out, I went for combining some raspberry sauce alongwith the chocolate sauce, and also try a hand at making some patterns with white chocolate. The result was this decadent dessert where the sweet chocolate was balanced perfectly by the tartness of the raspberries, giving a spoonful of heaven in every bite!

Ingredients
3/4 cup semisweet dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
3 eggs
1 cup chocolate cake or brownie mix
8-10 tbsp raspberry sauce

Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 nonstick muffin cups and set aside. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine dark chocolate chips and half of the butter. Microwave on high power for 45 to 60 seconds, stirring twice during cooking, or until chocolate and butter are melted and mixture is smooth. Cool for 5 minutes. Repeat the same with the white chocolate chips to melt it.

In a large bowl, combine eggs and beat with a mixer at high speed for 4 to 6 minutes until foamy and doubled in size. Gradually add cake mix to the beaten egg mixture, stirring until well blended. Fold in melted dark chocolate sauce. Carefully pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them upto half level in each cup. Then add 1 tbsp of raspberry sauce in each cup, and layer it with molten white chocolate. I used a cone made of plastic bag to form star-shaped designs with my white chocolate, as you can see in the picture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or just until edges are set. The centers of the little cakes will still be soft. Cool on wire rack for 2 minutes. The design on the top didn't turn out as pretty as I had imagined, but I'm happy that it did create a contrasting pattern of white on brown background!

Serve these delicious molten chocolate and raspberry cupcakes while they are still warm. You can drizzle with more chocolate syrup, or top it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream! Keep coming back for more valentine day recipes!!