John Whaite's red velvet cupcakes

1 Preheat the oven to 180℃, gas mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

2 For the cake batter put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl and whisk together to combine. Put 120ml hot water, buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla bean paste and gel colouring into a smaller bowl or jug and whisk well to combine, then add to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Whisk to a smooth, deep red cake batter – it will be rather runny and that’s perfect.

3 Divide the batter as evenly as possible between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen, and a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove and set on a wire rack to cool completely.

4 When the cakes have cooled, make the frosting. Put the icing sugar and butter into a bowl and whisk together until well combined – this is best done with a handheld electric mixer. Add the cream cheese and beat just until incorporated – don’t overbeat the mixture or it could soften too much.

5 Blob a generous helping of frosting onto each cupcake, then use a small palette knife to smooth the frosting into a cone on top of the cake. Use the tip of the palette knife to remove the tip of the frosting cone to create a little crater – it should resemble a volcano.

6 To decorate the cakes, nestle the fresh raspberries into the top of the frosting, then sprinkle over the dried raspberries. Finish with a dusting of lustre spray.