CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES W/ STRAWBERRY FROSTING


 
I love chocolate covered strawberries and eat them more often than I should.

Sometimes I am so impatient that I just melt me a big old bowl of chocolate and grab a handful of juicy red strawberries and start dipping.  This girl is not waiting for some chocolate to harden on a strawberry.

My love for this wonderful flavor combination is the reason for these chocolate cupcakes & starwberry cupcakes.


For the chocolate cake, I use the same recipe that I use for my 
Hot Fudge Sundae cupcakes.  It’s  the recipe that I use for almost all of my chocolate cupcakes.  It’s super quick and easy and starts out with a chocolate cake mix.

The secret to this delicious strawberry frosting is the freeze-dried strawberries. I actually prefer the taste over fresh fruit, and they work much better because you don’t have to worry about excess liquid making everything soggy. If you don’t have freeze-dried strawberries, you can substitute fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, or strawberry preserves. Just be sure to remove as much liquid as possible if using fresh strawberries.


INGREDIENTS
1.5oz of freeze-dried strawberries ( I used two .7oz  bags but you can add more/less flavor to taste)  Please note that this is not 7 oz but .7oz!  
1 cup softened butter or shortening (or use 1/2 butter & 1/2 shortening)
4 cup powdered sugar
1  tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Milk – use more if frosting is too thick adding small amounts at a time


DIRECTIONS

1. Put freeze dried strawberries into a food processor to create a powder or use a     Ziploc bag and smash with a rolling pin or whatever you have on hand that will work.   Set aside.

2. Beat butter and/or shortening together until smooth.

3. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth

4   Add your powdered strawberries to mixture and continue to add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.


CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIS

You don’t need a recipe for chocolate covered strawberries but here are a couple of tips that have found made a huge difference:
  • After washing the strawberries, lay them on a towel to completely dry.  Pat with a towel/paper towel if needed.  Get them as dry as possible.
  • Dip in melted chocolate of choice.