Valentines Day Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting
[u]Cake[/u]:
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 cup plain nondairy milk
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 cups pure maple syrup
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar [u]Frosting[/u]:
3 tablespoons vegan margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup crushed strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract [u]Garnish[/u]:
1/2 (12-ounce) bag chocolate chips
12 whole strawberries
1. Cake: In a bowl, combine all-purpose flour, pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, and teaspoon salt.
2. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, add the nondairy milk; heat until just beginning to simmer. Add the cocoa powder; whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat.
3. In another bowl, combine maple syrup, canola oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar; whisk well. Mix in the milk-cocoa mixture. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Fill muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray 3/4 full.
4. Bake in oven at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick/butter knife comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
5. Frosting: In a bowl, blend margarine and salt. Alternately blend in confectioners' sugar and crushed strawberries, then mix in vanilla.
6. Garnish: Melt chocolate chips. Dip each strawberry into melted chocolate, carefully holding on to the leaves. Put on wax paper and let set in refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
7. Assembly: Frost cupcakes with strawberry frosting and top with each with one chocolate-covered strawberry. For extra Valentine's Day points, cut off tops of strawberries to make them look like hearts.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Definitly make the frosting a day ahead. it thickens in the refridgerator. If you frost them without this step, all the "frosting" will run off and there will be none on your cupcakes! Your serving platter will be mighty tasty, though.
These stick like crazy to those paper cupcake holder things. I wouldn't reccomend using them. Wayy too messy. And these are better made as mini cupcakes, so that there's a higher frosting-to-cupcake ratio. If they were normal sized, there wouldn't be enough sweet icing and it will jus ttaste like crap.
They're ok. :-\ When I first saw this recipe I thought, "How come nobody's made these yet, they sound divine!!!
I wanted to use up some left over cherry pie filling, so I decided to make them Chocolate-covered Cherry Cupcakes with Cherry Frosting. I followed the cupcake recipe exactly, except I subbed half the maple for half corn syrup. I filled them half full, plopped in a cherry, and then covered them with more batter.
The chocolate cupcakes themselves are horrible. They're not very chocolately, or sweet. I think it's the pastry flour which makes them taste foul. The frosting is insanely sweet, however, and balances the bland cupcakes perfectly. I would not reccommend just making the cupcakes alone. Also, I wouldn't reccommend the frosting recipe for sweetener cakes, because then there's too much sweetness. The frosting is more like a glaze, anyway.
Overall they make a pretty good combination. I've had better, though.