Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 150°C or 300°F and place liners into a muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together, stirring with a whisk until well combined
3. In a seperate bowl cream together the oil and sugar for 2 min. Then add in the egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract and mix for an additional minute.
4. Pour both mixtures together and mix until no flour specs remain. Then slowly add the hot water to the batter while continuously mixing. (The batter will be very thin at this point, that’s okay.)
5. Now pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each liner 3/4 full. Bake for about 35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let them cool completely.

Raspberry Sauce

1. Add frozen raspberries and powdered sugar to a saucepan. Cook raspberries on stovetop until they have released their juices and most of them have broken down. Then puree until smooth and pass through a sieve.
2. Using an apple corer or a large piping tip, make a hole the middle of the cupcakes and fill with the raspberry sauce, setting aside about 4 teaspoons for the frosting.

Frosting

1. Mix together mascarpone, powdered sugar and salt in a bowl and cream together for 2 min. Let the mixture chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. To get a two colored swirl effect, fill one part of the raspberry sauce into your piping bag letting four stripes drip down horizontally into the bag. Then fill half of the mascarpone mix into the bag and pipe on to the cupcakes (I used a Wilton 1M tip). Use only half so you can repeat the process and fill raspberry sauce and mascarpone mix into the piping bag once more to not lose the effect while piping.
3. Garnish with fresh raspberries.