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Rich chocolate cupcakes with a fresh strawberry buttercream frosting topped with candied strawberries. Perfect balance of rich chocolate and sweet and tangy strawberry frosting, these cupcakes are perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting
Nothing says Valentine’s Day like chocolate and strawberries. These chocolate cupcakes are perfect for a romantic Valentine’s dessert or a family Valentine’s dinner. These chocolate cupcakes are based from my chocolate spiderweb cake I made for Halloween. The frosting is a mix of my buttercream frosting and the cream cheese frosting I used in my strawberries and cream cookie bars.
Rich Chocolate Cupcakes
To make these chocolate cupcakes rich and decadent, I used to tricks to enhance the chocolate flavor:
- Blooming cocoa powder – By using boiling hot water or some other warm liquid (butter), you can “bloom” the cocoa powder which brings out the chocolate flavor.
- Espresso – By adding just a teaspoon of espresso, it enhances the flavor of the chocolate. Some people use hot coffee which essentially both blooms the cocoa powder and adds the coffee to bring out the flavor.
Candied Strawberries
I saw these beautiful candied strawberries on the Recipes, Food and Cooking blog and just had to try them. They were so much fun to make and used the rest of the candied syrup to make candy pieces to top on the cupcakes. I waited for the ingredients to come to 300 degrees (148 C) and then dipped the skewered strawberries into the bubbling hot candy. The candied strawberries were perfect toppers for my chocolate cupcakes. For the recipe, click here.
Supplies
Here are a few things that I used to make these cupcakes:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
1M Piping Tip
Muffin Tin
Digital Food Scale
Piping Bags
Cupcake Liners
Bamboo Skewers
Candy Thermometer
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*This recipe yields 12 cupcakes.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1 cup flour 150g
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp of baking soda
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp of cocoa powder 38g
- 1/2 tsp of expresso
- 1/4 cup of butter 60g
- 1/2 cup of water 117g
- 1/4 cup of oil 50g
- 1/4 cup of buttermilk 60g
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 1 egg
Strawberry Frosting
- 3 cups of strawberries fresh or frozen
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- 1 stick of butter 113g
- 3 cups of powdered sugar 390g
- 1/4 cup of cream cheese 57g
- 1-3 tbsp of milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees (160 Celsius)
- Prepare muffin tin with cupcake liners
- Put flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside
- In a saucepan, add the cocoa powder, espresso, butter, water and oil
- Heat over a medium heat and whisk together until the boiling point
- Remove from the heat and slowly add the hot mixture to the dry ingredients
- Mix for 1-2 minutes
- Add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla
- Mix until well combined
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cupcake
Strawberry Frosting
- Add the strawberries and sugar to a saucepan
- Over medium heat cook for about 5 minutes, mashing the strawberries together
- After the strawberries have reduced, put in a blender or food processor and blend
- Strain the strawberries in a sieve to remove the seeds
- In a mixer, cream the butter until creamy
- Slowly add the powdered sugar
- Add the cream cheese and milk
- Add the strawberry sauce
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