1st Place Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Last year, I won 3rd place in the Decadent Dreams Chocolate Festival's Cupcake Wars with a Raspberry and Chocolate cupcake, and this year, I won 1st place! I entered a Strawberry Chocolate cupcake made with local winter strawberries from the Bush N Vine. They were FANTASTIC!! One of the judges came up to me afterwards, and he was like, "How did you get it so moist??!" I have no idea how it ended up so moist, I guess the recipe was just perfect!

These strawberries were so perfect. If I had been unable to get local strawberries, I would've made a completely different cupcake because the supermarket strawberries just don't compare.

Strawberry Twins!!

Luckily, I was able to find adorable cupcake liners that matched the buttercream at the store! 

The photo above is a photo of the completely reduced strawberry puree.

I was originally just going to fill the cupcakes with a normal chocolate ganache, but I had some strawberries left over, so I just mashed and reduced them! I would love to try a chocolate strawberry truffle using this method asap. 

It was less than 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave for the event, and I was trying to figure out how I should place the strawberries on the top! I finally went with halving the littlest strawberries and dipping them in the leftover chocolate strawberry ganache!

Perfection! These cupcakes are PERFECT. They are my top cupcake that I have made. Please try it out, and let me know what you think!!

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

makes ~30 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 1/2 T vinegar or lemon juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
• Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. Put milk and vinegar (or lemon juice) in a cup and let sit for at least 5 minutes until thick. Then, in another bowl, combine the milk mixture, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for around 20 minutes (check at 14 minutes), until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the tins for about ten minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Strawberry Ganache Filling

Ingredients

• 16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
• 16 ounces (2 cups) heavy cream
• 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries

Directions

• Heat cream and chocolate over medium heat until melted, stir until smooth
• Puree strawberries and reduce over medium heat until reduced to half
• Whip ganache until thick, and add reduction.
• Mix until together
• Pipe into center of cupcakes

 

Strawberry Frosting

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh strawberries
• 2 cups unsalted butter
• Dash of salt
• 7 cups of confectioner’s sugar (divided)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

• Place strawberries in a blender; puree until smooth.
• Transfer strawberry puree to a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring often, until puree is reduced by at least half, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
• Beat butter with an electric mixer in a bowl until light and fluffy.
• Beat 2 cups confectioners' sugar into butter until just blended.
• Beat 4 tablespoons strawberry puree and vanilla extract into butter mixture until just blended.
• Repeat with 2 cup confectioners' sugar, followed by 4 tablespoons strawberry puree two more times.
• Beat last 1 cup confectioners' sugar into mixture until just blended.
• Pipe onto cupcakes!