A few years ago, I threw a big birthday party for my mom when she turned 60. I hope she doesn’t beat me for writing her age. Anyway, she absolutely LOVES fruit and dark chocolate, so I made some dark chocolate covered strawberries. It was my first time making them, and I was shocked at how quickly they disappeared. I saw a half-eaten one on a plate that someone was finished with, and was concered about someone sneaking over and eating the leftovers, so I threw the plate away. Such a waste! So, what better way to combine chocolate and strawberry in a cupcake?
First thing’s first, I made the chocolate strawberries, using dark chocolate and red (vanilla) chocolate. Chocolates make great toppers for cupcakes, especially since you can eat them!
Here, I made one batch each of dark chocolate cake batter and strawberry cake batter. I use Duncan Hines cake mix with 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup water, 4 eggs, 1 box instant vanilla pudding (cheesecake flavor with strawberry, chocolate with chocolate) and 8 oz. sour cream.
Next, I spooned in a small amount of the chocolate cake batter, enough to completely cover the bottom of the cupcake liner. Then I topped it with strawberry cake batter.
I baked them for 23 minutes at 350 degrees in my oven. You’ll want to make sure the cupcakes have completely cooled before the next step.
Ahh, here we go. Melted dark chocolate. Take 1 cup of dark chocolate along with 2 teaspoons of oil (your choice, I used vegetable) and melt in microwave in 30 second intervals. With mine, it takes 2 intervals for the chocolate to completely melt. When melting chocolate, make sure you stir in between intervals so the chocolate doesn’t scald. Also, after the second interval, you should be able to stir the chocolate until it is completely melted, which gives it a great consistency. Adding oil to the chocolate makes it softer when biting into it.
After letting the chocolate cool, I piped cream cheese icing on top of the cupcakes. Then, I made some more chocolate, put it in a chocolate squirt bottle (I highly recommend for such procedures) and drizzled on top. Plopped the chocolate strawberry on top to finish it off!
Here’s the inside of the cupcake. As you can see, the bottom and top of the strawberry cake batter are chocolate, so that means it’s a chocolate covered strawberry, right? The cream cheese icing with drizzled chocolate and the chocolate strawberry just tops everything off. Dee. Lish.
