Berry Chantilly Cupcakes Recipe

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Berry Chantilly cake has an origin story you wouldn't expect — unless, of course, you're a regular shopper at Whole Foods. In 2005, the tall berries-and-cream cake was invented in a New Orleans store by lead baker Chaya Conrad, who adapted the cake from a beloved family recipe. The cake, which features fresh berries, a mascarpone and cream cheese frosting, and a moist yellow base, was immediately received well by customers and eventually became a viral sensation for its classic flavor and fresh berry filling. While Conrad has since opened her own bakery serving a similar creamy cake, the original lives on in Whole Foods stores nationwide.

Whole Foods sells its Berry Chantilly Cake whole, as single slices, and even sometimes as cupcakes, which are ideal for taking on-the-go. Making your own isn't a daunting task, and can even save some money if you need a big batch. The cupcakes, which mimic the larger-scale cake, have a vanilla base and are filled with fresh, juicy, sugary strawberries and topped with mascarpone-cream cheese whipped frosting. All together, this berry Chantilly cupcake recipe, written with developer Michelle McGlinn offers the same light-but-decadent flavor of the cake, but in a convenient size for eating as single servings.

To make berry Chantilly cupcakes, you'll need a few baking staples, like granulated sugar, powdered sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract. You'll also need chilled items like eggs, a little more than a stick of butter, sour cream, heavy whipping cream, mascarpone, and cream cheese. From there, you'll just need fresh fruit. Besides strawberries, you can choose between blueberries, blackberries, raspberries — or all include three.

Place the sliced strawberries in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Cover and chill for 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare a cupcake tray with liners.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.

In another bowl, combine the butter, egg whites, vanilla, sour cream, and whipping cream until mostly smooth.

Slowly add the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula to combine.

Divide the batter into the prepared cupcake tin.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are risen and golden.

In the meantime, make the frosting. Beat the mascarpone, cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar, and salt until fluffy. Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth.

When the cupcakes are finished baking, let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Using a cupcake corer, scoop a ½-inch piece from the centers of each cupcake.

Fill the cupcakes with macerated strawberry filling.

Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake to cover the strawberry filling.

Top with raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries to serve.

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A cupcake corer is a useful tool to own if you like to make cupcakes filled with berries, cream, frosting, or chocolate. If you aren't frequently making filled cupcakes, though, buying a new tool can feel like a waste of money. Cupcake corers come in a few different shapes and sizes, with the most common being a plastic mold that cuts and pulls a neat circle of cupcake away from the center. It can also look or double as a long-handled apple corer, which has sharp edges and can be plunged into the cupcake to core the center. If you don't have one, you can use a small biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, a melon baller, or a teaspoon to cut away the core — or even just a small spoon. 

You can repurpose the cores you cut out of the cupcakes to make new treats instead of throwing them away. You could simply add frosting to the small pieces for mini, bite-sized cupcakes, or you can turn them into cake pops by rolling the cake into uniform balls with frosting, then dipping them in melted chocolate to coat. You can also use them as a layer of a cake, like a tiramisu, or crumble them and disperse them onto ice cream or pudding for a streusel-like topping.

Macerated strawberries are fresh strawberries that have been coated in sugar and left to expel their juices, creating a soft, almost syrupy texture and sweet flavor. You can macerate almost any fruit, so if you prefer to fill the cupcakes with blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries, (or a mix of berries) you can instead coat those in sugar and let them soften. You can also infuse a little booze into the strawberries by macerating them with a splash of prosecco.

While macerated strawberries infuse flavor and moisture into the centers of the cupcake, you can also skip the macerating step and fill the cupcakes with finely chopped strawberries instead. You can also opt for strawberry jam or jelly, which will offer an even sweeter, smoother filling. You can also simply blend the strawberries and sugar for a thinner, more saucy filling without having to thicken it into a jam. You can also skip the fruit filling entirely and fill instead with more cream frosting, which can be piped into the core and covered with frosting on top.

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