Do you ever have a stroke of genius inspired by one simple ingredient?
Now that summer is here (officially in 5 days) I have been fixating on ways to showcase the delicious bounty of the season. I LOVE strawberries and you already know this since I featured a few dishes last summer that contained strawberries.
I walk in to the grocery store and work my way through the produce section, I come upon the strawberry display and I stand there trying to determine if I need strawberries… OF COURSE I DO! Thank goodness the store usually has them on sale because that gives me even more of a reason to buy them.
Last summer we got our strawberries through our CSA and they were the cutest little things ever. We are enrolled in another CSA this year but we haven’t started to get our box of goodies. I hope that when the strawberries come they come in cute crates and are super duper adorable!
I have been really into chocolate covered strawberries, apparently these are things that I think you should make for all festive occasions. Every summer I decide on a dessert that I will obsess about. S’mores have been on that list a lot of those years but for some reason I have decided early on that chocolate dipped strawberries are my new obsession. Enter the strawberry and chocolate cupcakes topped with a chocolate dipped strawberry. That’s right, a chocolate dipped strawberry is on top of this cupcake!
Remember when cupcakes were all the rage? When we lived in Philadelphia there was a cupcake shop on every corner, well not every corner but you could easily walk to one. I totally jumped on that cupcake bandwagon because I like really small things. I have very strong opinions on cupcakes; 1. I do not believe in instructions regarding the consumption of a cupcake, i.e. let cupcake sit at room temp before eating. 2. Cupcakes should not require forks, you might want a fork for this one but I totally ate it without a fork and it was wonderful. 3. I am not sure I believe in cupcakes filled with creams, leave the cream on top.
Ok I am going to stop talking because all I want to do right now is eat one of these cupcakes. If you make these I dare you to resist!
Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 Box Butter Cake Mix
- 3 Eggs
- 7 Tbsp. Butter
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 12-14 Medium Strawberries Diced
- 2 Tsp. Flour
- 4 Oz. Dark Baking Chocolate
- Toothpicks
- Cream Cheese Icing (Recipe Below)
- 12 Small Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Recipe Below)
Cream Cheese Frosting (via Cook's Illustrated)
- 1 Oz. Cream Cheese - softened
- 6 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter - softened
- 4 Tsp. Sour Cream
- 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 Tsp. Salt
- 1 3/4 Cups Powdered Sugar
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
- 12 Small Strawberries
- Microwaveable Melting Chocolate i.e. Baker's
Instructions
- Prepare the cake as indicated on the box. Make sure to blend the batter to ensure that there are no large lumps. Before adding your strawberries to the batter coat them in flour, this will prevent the strawberries from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake. Fold your strawberries in to your cake batter and set aside. While your cake batter is resting melt your dark chocolate in a glass bowl. It's best to microwave in 30 second intervals to ensure that the chocolate does not burn. Line a cookie sheet with jumbo cupcake liners (aluminum). Using an ice cream scoop fill the liners 3/4 full. Using a teaspoon apply a teaspoon full of the melted dark chocolate to the top of the batter. Using a toothpick swirl the chocolate in to the batter. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and apply icing once cooled. Top with chocolate covered strawberries and enjoy!
Instructions for Cream Cheese Frosting
- Combine all the ingredients minus the powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Once everything is blended add the powdered sugar gradually. Once fluffy transfer to a pastry bag or ziplock bag for piping.
Instructions for Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
- Melt chocolate according to directions. Dip strawberries and swirl to coat, set strawberries on wax paper and chill for 15 minutes until the chocolate is hardened.
I love cupcakes, this looks delicious.