Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

After working on homework ALL day yesterday, I decided to give myself a little break.  I wanted to relax, have a glass (or two) of red wine and bake.  And that's exactly what I did.  A girl friend and I got together last night and decided on what kind of cupcakes we wanted to bake.  Well, I'll be honest, I decided what kind of cupcakes we should bake.  I wanted chocolate, I wanted strawberry filling and I wanted cupcakes.  Fairly straight forward, I think.

As always, I found a recipe I was interested in and tweaked it.  My mum had a bunch of Martha Stewart recipes she had printed off, so I found one that interested me, called the "Hi-Hat".  I really think the name grabbed my attention more than the cupcakes, haha.

Anyhow..Here's what these bad boys turned out like

The recipe ...

For The Batter

1 ounce        semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

2 ounces      strawberry pie filling

1 cup           all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp         baking powder

1/2 tsp         baking soda

1/4 tsp         salt

1/2 cup        unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups    sugar

2                  large eggs

1 tsp            vanilla extract

1/2 cup        sour cream

For The Frosting

1/3 cup        soft butter

3 cups          confectioners sugar

1 1/2 tsp       vanilla extract

2+ tbsp         milk

For the Chocolate Dip

8-12 ounces  semi-sweet chocolate 

3 tbsp           canola or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350° degrees - rack in centre.  Start by melting the chocolate, if you don't know how to do this, aside from microwaving it (which I personally don't recommend), it's quite simple.  Place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl, and set it over a medium saucepan of simmering water, stir.  Set aside to cool slightly.

While the chocolate is cooling, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Grab another medium bowl and cream butter and sugar, on medium speed - you want it to be light and fluffy :).  Next, on low, mix in the melted chocolate.  Once fully mixed, add the strawberries, increase speed back to medium and add eggs, one at time.  Then the vanilla.  Mix thoroughly and then add the sour cream and 1/2 a cup of water.  

Once that is mixed through and through, yep, add the flour.  Bit by bit if you don't want to get poofed! in the face!

Voila!  The batter is done!

Now, add the batter to paper liners, which undoubtedly should already be in the cupcake pan.  Most cupcake recipes say to only add x amount of batter to each liner, however, it's completely up to you.  I found that these are a denser cupcake so I added a little more to my liners, I'd say approximately 2/3s.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Once done, let cool.

I ended up piping the leftover pie filling (jelly portion) into my cupcakes, very easy to do, go in from the side with a long tip.  

As for the icing.  Mix all ingredients, till a smooth and thick consistency is achieved.  

Pipe icing onto cupcakes, or spoon, again, entirely up to you!  Let cool in fridge while melting the chocolate.....

Now for the last step, like with the chocolate portion of the batter, you want to melt this as well.  Once melted, DIP the top of the cupcake.  Again, super super easy to do:).  

I know this recipe wasn't as straight forward as the couple others I've posted, but after another grueling day of homework, my brain and writing skills are at a barely functioning degree.  

Good luck & hope you enjoyed

-D.