Raspberry Almond Cupcakes with Filling

By Callie

Some recipes just feel like they were made for a moment, and these raspberry almond cupcakes are that recipe for me. The first time I baked them was the night before Valentine’s Day a few years ago. I’d been scrolling through ideas for something that wasn’t just another red velvet cupcake (nothing against red velvet, I have a recipe for that too), and I kept coming back to the combination of almond and raspberry. There’s something about those two flavors together that feels romantic without trying too hard, you know?

I remember pulling the first batch out of the oven and the kitchen smelled like a French bakery – that warm, buttery, almond scent that makes you want to stand there and just breathe it in. The cupcakes were golden on top, perfectly domed, and when I cored them out and spooned in the raspberry jam filling, the bright pink against the pale cake was so pretty I almost didn’t want to frost them. Almost. Because then I piped on that raspberry cream cheese frosting and the whole thing came together into something that looked like it belonged in a bakery window.

These are scratch cupcakes, not box mix, but don’t let that scare you. The batter comes together in about 15 minutes, and the frosting is straightforward cream cheese buttercream with ground freeze-dried raspberries mixed in for that gorgeous natural pink color and tangy berry punch. They’re the kind of cupcake that makes people pause mid-bite and ask “what IS that flavor?” – and the answer is almond extract doing all the heavy lifting alongside real raspberry.

If you’re a fan of fruity, elegant cupcakes, you should also try my Pink Champagne Cupcakes From Scratch for another show-stopping pink dessert that’s perfect for celebrations.

Why You Will Like These Raspberry Almond Cupcakes

• From-scratch but totally doable. No box mix here, but the ingredient list is simple and the technique is basic creaming method. If you can use a mixer, you can make these. The whole process from start to frosted cupcakes takes about an hour.
• That almond flavor is everything. Almond extract gives the cake this warm, slightly sweet, almost marzipan-like quality that’s completely different from vanilla cupcakes. It’s distinctive without being overpowering, and it pairs with raspberry like they were meant for each other.
• Real raspberry jam filling in the center. Every bite has a burst of tangy, fruity raspberry jam hiding inside. It’s the surprise that takes these from really good to absolutely memorable.
• The frosting gets its color from real fruit. No artificial food coloring needed. Ground freeze-dried raspberries give the cream cheese frosting a natural, vibrant pink that looks stunning and tastes like actual berries instead of sugar and dye.
• Perfect for Valentine’s Day and beyond. The pink frosting and raspberry filling scream romance, but these are just as welcome at baby showers, bridal showers, spring brunches, Mother’s Day, or any occasion where you want something beautiful and delicious.
• Stays moist for days. The combination of butter, oil, and buttermilk in the batter creates a tender crumb that doesn’t dry out. These taste just as good on day three as they do fresh from the oven.
• Impressive presentation with minimal effort. A simple swirl of that pink frosting topped with a fresh raspberry looks absolutely bakery-professional. People will think you spent hours on these.
• Customizable for dietary needs. Nut allergy? Swap almond extract for vanilla. Gluten-free? Use a GF flour blend. Dairy-free? There are easy swaps for every dairy ingredient.

Raspberry Almond Cupcake Ingredients

This is a from-scratch recipe with real ingredients. Nothing unusual or hard to find.

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups (190 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 stick (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
• 2 tablespoons canola oil (or vegetable oil)
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2/3 cup (160 g) buttermilk, room temperature
• About 1/2 cup raspberry jam (for filling)

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 stick (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups (400 g) powdered sugar, sifted
• 3/4 block (170 g) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups (30 g) freeze-dried raspberries, finely ground to powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: lemon juice or raspberry extract to taste

Callie’s Kitchen Note: Room temperature ingredients really matter here, more than in most recipes. Cold butter won’t cream properly and you’ll get a lumpy batter. Cold eggs can cause the creamed butter to seize up and look curdled. Cold buttermilk can do the same thing. I set everything out on the counter about an hour before I start. If I forget (which happens more often than I’d like to admit), I microwave the butter in 10-second bursts until it’s just soft, and I put the eggs in warm water for 10 minutes.

Ingredient Tips and Selection

Almond extract: This is the heart of the recipe, so use a good one. Pure almond extract tastes noticeably better than imitation. McCormick pure almond extract is widely available and works great. If you have a nut allergy, swap it for additional vanilla extract (use a total of 4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla in the cupcakes). The cupcakes will be delicious, just without that almond character.

Freeze-dried raspberries: You can find these in the snack or dried fruit aisle of most grocery stores. Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Target all carry them. Make sure they’re unsweetened – you just want pure freeze-dried fruit, nothing added. Grind them to a fine powder in a food processor, blender, or by crushing them in a zip-top bag with a rolling pin. You want powder, not chunks, so the frosting stays smooth.

Buttermilk: Real buttermilk gives the best tang and tenderness. If you don’t have it, make a quick substitute by stirring 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into 2/3 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes until it thickens slightly and looks a little curdled. That’s your homemade buttermilk.

Raspberry jam: Use whatever brand you like. I prefer a jam with seeds for the texture, but seedless works fine if that’s your preference. Bonne Maman is my go-to because it tastes like real fruit and has a nice thick consistency that stays put inside the cupcake instead of running everywhere.

The oil addition: Adding 2 tablespoons of oil alongside the butter might seem odd, but it’s intentional. Butter gives flavor and structure. Oil adds moisture that keeps the crumb tender and prevents that dry, crumbly texture some scratch cupcakes can get. Together they give you the best of both worlds.

How To Make Raspberry Almond Cupcakes

Preparing the Cupcake Batter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set this aside. Whisking the dry ingredients together distributes the leavening agents evenly, which means your cupcakes will rise consistently instead of having some that dome and some that stay flat.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the room temperature butter, sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and canola oil on medium speed for about 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once during this time. The mixture should be pale, fluffy, and noticeably lighter in color. This step is called creaming, and it’s where you’re building the structure of the cupcake by incorporating air into the butter. Don’t rush it – the full 4 minutes matters.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds after each addition until fully incorporated. Scrape down the bowl between eggs.

Now alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. I do it in three additions of dry and two of buttermilk: dry, buttermilk, dry, buttermilk, dry. Mix on low speed after each addition and only until the ingredients are just combined. Overmixing at this stage activates too much gluten and makes the cupcakes tough.

Callie’s Kitchen Note: I made these once and got distracted by my phone between adding the buttermilk and the last portion of dry ingredients. I left the mixer running on medium the whole time, maybe 2 extra minutes. Those cupcakes came out dense and had a slightly chewy, bread-like texture. Now I mix on low and stop the second I don’t see any more streaks of flour. Less mixing equals more tender cupcakes, every time.

Baking the Cupcakes

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake liners, filling each about two-thirds full. A cookie scoop or ice cream scoop helps keep them uniform.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Don’t overbake these – they should feel soft and springy, not firm. The almond extract and buttermilk make them golden on top, so color alone isn’t the best doneness indicator. Trust the touch test.

Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. This takes about 30 to 40 minutes. They need to be completely cool before you fill and frost them.

Making the Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

In a stand mixer (or large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the room temperature cream cheese on medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth and lump-free. Add the room temperature butter and beat for another minute until combined.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Start slow to avoid a sugar cloud explosion (ask me how I know). Once the sugar is mostly incorporated, increase the speed to high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until the frosting is light, fluffy, and smooth.

Add the ground freeze-dried raspberry powder and mix until the color is evenly distributed. The frosting will turn a gorgeous natural pink. Taste it here – if you want more tartness, add a squeeze of lemon juice. If you want more berry punch, add a few drops of raspberry extract.

Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your preferred tip. I like a large open star tip (Wilton 1M) for a classic swirl, but any large tip works.

Filling and Assembling

Callie’s Kitchen Note: The filling step is what takes these from “nice cupcake” to “wow, what is THAT.” The first time I served them without telling anyone about the filling, my friend bit in, hit the raspberry jam, and literally gasped. It’s a small step that makes a huge impression.

Using the wide end of a piping tip, a small paring knife, or a cupcake corer, remove a small cone of cake from the center of each cupcake. Don’t go all the way to the bottom – leave about a half inch of cake at the base.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of raspberry jam into each hole. Pack it in gently but don’t overfill – you want the jam to sit below the surface so the frosting can cover it completely.

Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake in generous swirls. Top with a fresh raspberry, a few freeze-dried raspberry pieces, or some pink sprinkles for that finished look.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

These are scratch cupcakes, so there are a few technique traps to watch for.

Using cold ingredients. This is the single biggest cause of problems with this recipe. Cold butter won’t cream properly, cold eggs will make the batter look curdled, and cold buttermilk can cause the whole mixture to break. Take the time to bring everything to room temperature. I can’t stress this enough.

Overmixing the batter. Once you start alternating the dry ingredients and buttermilk, switch to low speed and mix only until the flour disappears. Every extra second of mixing develops gluten that makes the cupcakes tough and dense instead of light and tender. A few small lumps are fine – they bake out.

Overfilling the cupcake liners. Two-thirds full is the sweet spot. If you go higher, the cupcakes will mushroom over the top of the liners and the tops will be flat instead of nicely domed. Flat tops are harder to frost and don’t look as polished.

Not grinding the freeze-dried raspberries fine enough. If the raspberry pieces are too chunky, they’ll clog your piping tip and create an uneven, speckled frosting instead of that smooth, even pink. Grind them until they’re a fine powder with no visible chunks. A food processor works best for this.

Filling the cupcakes while they’re still warm. If you core and fill warm cupcakes, the jam will melt and seep into the cake, making it soggy around the center. Wait until they’re completely cool to the touch before filling.

Storage And Reheating

In the refrigerator: Because the frosting has cream cheese, these need to be stored in the refrigerator. Place them in an airtight container and they’ll keep for up to 5 days. The jam filling actually tastes better after a day in the fridge because the flavors meld together with the cake.

Serving temperature: Take them out of the fridge about 20 to 30 minutes before serving. The frosting tastes best at a cool room temperature – cold straight from the fridge, the cream cheese frosting is a bit stiff and the flavors are muted. Letting them warm up slightly makes a real difference.

At room temperature: If you’re serving at a party or event, these can sit out at room temperature for up to 2 hours safely. The cream cheese frosting is stable enough for a party spread as long as the room isn’t excessively warm.

Freezing cupcakes: Freeze the cupcakes unfrosted and unfilled in a freezer-safe bag or container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then fill with jam and frost the day you plan to serve them. The fresh frosting will look and taste much better than frosting that’s been frozen and thawed.

Freezing frosting: The raspberry cream cheese frosting can be made up to 1 week ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge, or frozen for up to 2 months. Let it come to room temperature and re-whip for a minute before piping.

Make-ahead strategy: Bake the cupcakes on day one, store at room temperature in an airtight container. Make the frosting on day two. Fill and frost the morning of your event for the freshest look. This spreads the work out and keeps you from doing everything in a rush.

For food safety guidelines on storing cream cheese-based frostings, the USDA recommends refrigerating perishable desserts within 2 hours.

Raspberry Almond Cupcake Variations

Lemon Raspberry Almond: Add the zest of one lemon to the cupcake batter and replace the almond extract in the frosting with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. The citrus brightens everything up and creates a lemon-raspberry combo that’s incredibly refreshing for spring and summer.

Double Raspberry: Replace the almond extract in the cupcakes with raspberry extract (same measurement) and fold 1/3 cup of fresh raspberries into the batter. This puts raspberry in every layer – the cake, the filling, and the frosting. It’s raspberry overload in the best way.

Raspberry Almond with Chocolate: Drizzle melted dark chocolate over the frosted cupcakes and let it set. The chocolate-raspberry-almond combination is a classic trio that never disappoints. You can also add mini chocolate chips to the batter for chocolate pockets throughout.

Callie’s Kitchen Note: I tested a version where I replaced all the vanilla extract with almond extract, thinking more almond would be better. It wasn’t – it tasted like perfume. The 2 1/2 teaspoons in the original recipe is the sweet spot. The vanilla in the background rounds out the almond and keeps it from being one-note. Don’t go higher than the recipe calls for.

Strawberry Almond: Swap the raspberry jam filling for strawberry preserves and use ground freeze-dried strawberries in the frosting instead of raspberries. Same technique, different berry, equally beautiful in pink.

Gluten-Free Version: Replace the all-purpose flour with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend (Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur measure-for-measure work well). Everything else stays the same. The texture will be very close to the original.

Dairy-Free Version: Use plant-based butter (Country Crock or Miyoko’s), dairy-free cream cheese (Kite Hill), and substitute the buttermilk with 2/3 cup of non-dairy milk mixed with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. The frosting won’t be quite as tangy, but it’s still delicious.

Nut-Free Version: Replace all almond extract with the same amount of vanilla extract. The cupcakes will lose that distinctive almond character but will still be beautiful, moist, and pair perfectly with the raspberry components.

Serving Suggestions

These cupcakes are genuinely pretty enough to be the centerpiece of a dessert table. Here’s how to make the most of them.

Valentine’s Day dessert: Arrange on a white cake stand, scatter some fresh raspberries and rose petals around the base, and add a small card that says “made with love.” It’s simple styling that looks incredibly romantic and takes about 2 minutes.

Bridal or baby shower: These are a natural fit for showers because of the elegant pink color. Display them on a tiered stand alongside other pink and white desserts for a cohesive spread. The individual portions mean no cutting and easy serving.

Spring brunch: Serve alongside mimosas or sparkling rose for a brunch that feels special. A bowl of fresh mixed berries on the side ties everything together.

Pairing with drinks: A chilled glass of sparkling rose is the perfect match – the berry notes in the wine echo the raspberry in the cupcakes. Raspberry lemonade works great for non-alcoholic pairings. For a hot drink, an almond milk latte bridges the almond flavor in the cupcakes nicely.

Garnish ideas: A single fresh raspberry on top is classic and beautiful. White chocolate shavings add an elegant touch. Edible flowers (small roses or violets) make them look like they belong in a magazine. For Valentine’s Day specifically, a few heart-shaped sprinkles scattered on the frosting are sweet and festive.

As a gift: Nestle 4 to 6 cupcakes in a bakery box lined with parchment paper, close the lid, and tie with ribbon. These make a gorgeous homemade gift for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or a thank-you. Include the recipe card if you’re feeling generous.

Raspberry Almond Cupcakes FAQ

Recipes You May Like

If these raspberry almond cupcakes made your day, here are a few more sweet treats from my kitchen:

• Heart Confetti Valentine’s Cupcakes – Vanilla cupcakes with a colorful confetti surprise inside. Festive, fun, and perfect for Valentine’s Day parties.
• Pink Champagne Cupcakes From Scratch – Bubbly, elegant, and just the right amount of fancy. These are my go-to for bridal showers and celebrations.
• Red Velvet Valentine Kiss Cupcakes – Classic red velvet with cream cheese frosting and a Hershey’s Kiss on top. Simple, gorgeous, and always a hit.

Conclusion

These raspberry almond cupcakes are one of the recipes I’m proudest of on this site. The scratch batter with real almond extract and buttermilk creates a cake that’s light, tender, and full of flavor. The raspberry jam filling adds that tangy burst in the center that catches people off guard (in the best way). And that frosting – naturally pink from real freeze-dried raspberries, tangy from cream cheese, and just sweet enough – ties everything together into something that looks and tastes like it came from a professional bakery.

Whether you’re making these for Valentine’s Day, a shower, a birthday, or just because you want something beautiful and delicious on a Saturday afternoon, I promise they won’t let you down. Make a batch, take a photo, and come tell me about it in the comments. I love seeing your versions. And please save this recipe to Pinterest so it’s waiting for you when the next special occasion rolls around.

Happy baking!

Callie

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