Monday, March 19, 2012

I'm not Irish enough to make a St. Patty's Day dessert.


Hello, friends!
I hope you had a very merry St. Patty's day.
I have some news for you.
This will be the last time you will see this particular kitchen here on love in the kitchen.
The love will be moving to a new, {bigger}, and equally as awesome kitchen in the next few weeks. 
This is part of my excuse for not updating recently.
[Besides being lazy... oops]
I hope to post something again as soon as we get semi-settled.


Onward to our journey of these chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes.
This idea came to me in US History class.
I was just thinking of how much I missed the chocolates I bought myself for my birthday,
and then I got to thinking about how delicious Godiva's chocolate covered strawberries are.
And then I thought about how I haven't posted a new blog in a while.
And then I thought about cupcakes.
And then I was just like
"HEY. How about I make some strawberry sauce, inject it into chocolate cupcakes, and then top with chocolate frosting and a slice of strawberry?"
Also it was my good friend Randi's birthday, and she needed some sort of sweet.


So I called over my good friend Nick...


And Natalie, who loves my dog.
And they helped me make these cupcakes.


So first, mix up all your dry ingredients, except the sugars. 


Then pretend you're a frightened chocolate warrior.


Cream together the butter and sugars.


Add sour cream. This is the first cake I've ever done with sour cream, and it's so good, You can taste a little bit of tanginess (that is 100% not a word) in it, and it's so moist.


On a low speed, alternate adding the flour and cocoa mixture...


...And your buttermilk. This also added to the slight, pleasant tang of the cake. Perfect.


Then distribute the batter into your muffin cups.
{I got a nifty cookie scoop for Christmas and it works great with cake batter too!}

And pop them into the oven. 


While those cook, whip up a simple strawberry sauce.


I just threw a bunch of strawberries,


sugar, and a little but of lemon juice in my blender and pureed until smooth.
Then....


When your cuppycakes are completely cool, it's time to fill them with this strawberry sauce.


I got this little cupcake injector thing for Christmas, too. It's perfect for this job.
But if you don't have something fancy like this, a pastry bag with a small, rounded tip will do just fine.


{"It's just like surgery!" the baker says, not knowing what any type of surgery is like...}
Just push the tip through the surface of the cupcake and fill until it starts to overflow. I have a tendency of under filling them, which is bad.
[In hindsight, I should have definitely taken the cuppycakes out of the tin.]
And I was too lazy to make chocolate frosting, so I just put canned frosting on top.
I hope you enjoyed this time we just spent together. 
And I hope you try out some of my recipes. 
If you do, be sure to tell me, whether it be in the comments, in person, whatever it may be.
I love hearing from you, my darlings <3
Cheers,
Emily

Black Forest Cupcakes
(From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)
Yields 32
Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins. With an electric mixer on high speed, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well-incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in sour cream. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and mixing until just combined after each. Divide evenly among muffin cups, and bake, rotating tins half way through, until tops are firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. About 20 minutes.

P.S. Spring came early this year in the Chicago area. Here are some pictures I took of the flowers that bloomed in my backyard.




1 comment:

  1. So delicious, your cupcakes make my mouth water, Emily! Love you and your sweet little blog of love!

    ReplyDelete