I’ve received a lot of support and appreciation through the past 9 months of my blog, which definitely has helped me keep baking, even during the dark depths of pre-exam time. And almost no one, besides my mom of course, has given me more praise than my friend Julie — she’s the self-proclaimed #1 Sweet Tooth Fan. So when her birthday came around last week, I knew I couldn’t let her down. Enter: chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes.
The recipe is pretty simple: chocolate cake, strawberry buttercream, topped with half of a chocolate covered strawberry. Elegant, adorable, delicious. Since I was busy packing up our apartment to move while also packing for the trip to Yellowstone, I went with a doctored-up cake mix instead of my preferred chocolate cake recipe. It’s not because I love you any less Jules, just because my mind and kitchen were almost spinning out of control. But of course she didn’t notice and loved them just the same :)
I also temporarily moved my photography “studio”/table outside since the apartment was chaos, and I really like the specks of light coming through the trees. We get much more sunlight in the kitchen of our new place but I’m also hoping to do some more shots out on our new patio! We’re almost completely moved in, and I can’t wait to christen the oven with something delicious.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes
For the chocolate cupcakes: Recipe adapted from Hello, Cupcake!
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup buttermilk (instead of water indicated on box)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a regular muffin tin with 24 paper liners
– Beat together all of the ingredients for the cupcakes with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes
– Divide batter evenly among cups and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean
– Allow cupcakes to cool in the tin for at least 5 minutes after they are done, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely
For the strawberry buttercream: Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
3 tbsp strawberry puree (from about 1/2 cup fresh strawberries)
1 cup unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
3-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
– Puree strawberries with a food processor and strain out the seeds by forcing the puree through a fine-mesh sieve
– In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter on medium speed until light and fluffy
– Reduce speed of mixer and slowly add confectioners’ sugar, and beat until well combined
– Add vanilla and strawberry puree, and mix until just blended (If frosting is too thick, add more puree, if it’s too fluid, add more sugar)
– Pipe frosting on cooled cupcakes using a large star tip and top with half a chocolate covered strawberry (see below)
For chocolate covered strawberries:
12 medium-sized strawberries
Chocolate melts
– Cut strawberries in half, keeping the leaves and stems on as much as possible
– Using a double boiler, melt chocolate melts until smooth
– Dip each strawberry half in the chocolate and place on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet to dry
– Once chocolate is set, place one strawberry half on each cupcake
Recipe makes 24 cupcakes
Happy Birthday Julie! Thanks for all of your love and support :)
My birthday is in exactly twenty-two days. (Just in case you were wondering.) Love the natural light for the photos!
They look lovely. I’m sure you friend loved them!
The cupcakes look awesome but what I’m most enamored with is the strawberry buttercream! Way to dress those babies up.
These look delicious and I really like how you’ve coated the strawberries in chocolate, so beautifully decorated :) I definately want to make these sometime, thanks for sharing the recipe :)
gorgeous!
help please. recipe says cupcakes but the say bake in a regular muffin tin…so which to i use. cupcake tin makes a way small cake than the muffin does..help please
In my vocabulary, a muffin tin and a cupcake tin are the same thing, like one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Farberware-52106-Nonstick-Bakeware-12-Cup/dp/B00008W70J/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323349503&sr=8-1
Hope that helps!
I just made these tonight for my daughters valentines day party….They are so delicious :) And they look so nice. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these recipes, thank you for sharing them! April
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How do you do to have such perfect cupcakes, round on the top? Mine always come out disfigured!! Do you have a technique? Thanks :)!
Erica — January 31st, 2013 @ 5:49 pm
Just make sure not to overfill them. If mine bake up not so pretty, sometimes I’ll use a sharp paring knife to shape them as long as it’s covered up by frosting. Hope this helps!
Hi there. I hate to tell you this but your recipe and photos has been stolen by this site http://www.easykitchenrecipes.com/2013/01/chocolate-covered-strawberry-cupcakes.html. All of her recipes belong to other people and I am contacting everyone to get them to do a DCMA takedown notice and contact her web provider. She should not profit from your work!!!
The cakes were great. But the frosting is not working at all. I tried many times and it just never gets hard enough like in the photos. What am I doing wrong?
Erica — March 14th, 2013 @ 2:14 am
Hmm, I’m really not sure what’s going wrong here. What temperature/texture is your butter when you make the buttercream? And are you sure you’re using powdered sugar?
Im having a party this weekend and i would love to make these cupcakes. They look very nice and very appetizing! But im just wondering about the cake mix. My box of mix says 3 eggs not 4, so i was wondering if i could follow the directions on my box, but still use the buttermil instead of water?
Erica — December 20th, 2013 @ 2:07 pm
Yea follow the directions on your box but use the buttermilk for sure!
Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe!