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Strawberry Frosting Chocolate Cupcakes

On Saturday we attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Andrea. It was a fun party that ended up looking a lot like a wedding reception with lots of dancing and karaoke. I made some chocolate cupcakes for the party  to go with the blueberry and lemon frosting cupcakes I had made the day before.

As I said before, I've been working on finding a chocolate cupcake recipe that satisfies my deepest chocolatey cravings and I feel a step closer after tweeking my last recipe. I didn't want to get too crazy with the recipe since I was going to be feeding them to a room full of people I didn't know, but I felt fairly certain that my changes would make an awesome cupcake. And I was right. It was very moist and had a more sweet chocolate flavor, where as the previous cupcakes I had made were more of a strong, dark chocolate flavor. It went perfectly with the strawberry frosting, which nicely fulfilled my berry cravings.

I decided that I want to start baking for every event possible and taking my camera everywhere. I want to do everything I can to sharpen my baking and photography skills. So now my friends can expect me to shove a cupcake in their face at every opportunity and then take a picture of them eating it. Sounds fun, right? Everyone wins. 


Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

(makes about 16 cupcakes)


Ingredients:

• 1 cup steaming hot cappuccino (regular ol' coffee would work too)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line your cupcake tray
2. In a small bowl, pour the hot cappuccino over the cocoa powder and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
4. In the bowl of your mixer (or in a large bowl if you don't have a mixer), beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
5. Add eggs, on at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract
7. Add in the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
8. Add in the cocoa mixture and mix well until smooth.
9. Fill cupcake tray evenly (each cup about 3/4 full).
10. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Strawberry Frosting Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons  fresh, pureed strawberries (about 3-4 strawberries with tops cut off)

Directions:

1. Cream butter in the bowl of your mixer or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer
2. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar
3. Add in the pureed strawberries, one tablespoon at a time and mix well

Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

I happened upon an article on MarthaStewart.com about spring dessert recipes when we had our lovely, too-short-lived warm days a week ago. All I can think about now are cherry pies, peach cobbler, and lemon cake. I want to feel a cool breeze coming through our open windows as flour flies everywhere and I feel right at home in my kitchen with my apron and rolled up jeans. Oh, spring. I miss you so.

My dear friend Melissa had surgery last week and I wanted to bring her some treats. Since I was just itching for a reason to make something springy and sweet, I decided to make her some blueberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream.

Lucas said they tasted like heaven. Either he's overly sweet or these cupcakes are divine. My own taste buds are leaning towards divine.

I iced the cupcakes for Melissa, then refrigerated the icing to frost the rest of the cupcakes later. Unfortunately, while sitting in the fridge, the butter in the icing stiffened up and the lemon juice just sort of separated. So, when I squeezed it out of my icing bag, it was less than pretty. But, as you can see in the pictures, I smoothed out the icing with an offset spatula and it worked out just fine. Plus, it still tasted awesome. That's all that really matters anyway, right?

We took the leftovers to our friend's surprise birthday party. On the way there we stopped at a grocery store to get more blueberries to top them off. They looked really cute with the berries on top, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Fail. Just take my word. They were stinkin' precious looking. Later this week I'll tell you all about the other cupcake I made for the surprise party:]

Blueberry Cupcakes Recipe

Makes about 14 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz (about 3 cups) fresh blueberries
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line cupcake pan with paper liners
2. Coat washed blueberries in the 5 tablespoons of flour in a medium bowl
3. Sift together the 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl
4. Cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of your mixer
5. Mix in sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
6. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
7. Add in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
8. Gently fold in blueberries
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 22-25 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice from one lemon (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons water
• pinch of salt
• 1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Cream butter until light and fluffy in the bowl of your mixer
2. Slowly add in powdered sugar until fully mixed
3. Beat in heavy cream
4. Add lemon juice and mix well
5. Add water and salt and mix thoroughly
6. Add food coloring
7. Frost your cooled cupcakes!

The end!