I♥cuppycakes!

Happy LOVE Day, Readers!

I prefer “Love Day” to “Valentines Day” b/c I don’t think Valentines day is necessarily just to tell your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other that you love them. I like to think that Valentines Day is a day to tell everyone you care about how much you love them. So…

I LOVE MY READERS!

And what better way to say I LOVE YOU than some crunked up chocolate and raspberry cupcakes, eh?

One of my favorite Valentines Day indulgences are Raspberry Truffles. Oh baby… Forget the chocolate dipped strawberries. Give me a raspberry truffle. Better yet. A raspberry truffle and some Chambord laced champagne. Maybe throw in a dozen or so red roses too.

Women of the world! Who’s with me?

Eep! Sorry to cupcake and run but Hubs is whisking me away to a day of love filled fun. I’m crossing my fingers that it includes a hot oil massage. *wink* Hope you’re spending today with the ones you love too.

Oh and… Happy Vietnamese New Year!

Year of the Tiger.

Here’s to a Grrrreat start to the new year! (Sorry I couldn’t resist.)

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Crunkcakes
Recipe adapted from Hershey’s Kitchen and Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

INGREDIENTS

For Hershey Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (I halved this “cake” recipe and got 17 cupcakes)
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For Raspberry Chambord Buttercream
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp raspberry extract
1 lb (4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
1-3 tsp Chambord, to taste (I used 3 tsp)
2-3 drops of pink gel food coloring, optional (I used Ateco fuschia)

For Raspberry Truffles
2 pints fresh raspberries, cleaned and dried
5 oz semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

sugar pearls, garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

To make dark chocolate cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 350F.

In a stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, stir to combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking power, baking soda and salt. On medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, then oil, milk and vanilla extract. Change speed to low and add boiling water. (Be careful of splashing!) Don’t worry if batter appears thin.

Fill cupcake liners about less than 1/2 full (These cupcakes rise very well!). Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make raspberry chambord buttercream—
In a stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, cream shortening and butter. Gradually add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating to combine. Slowly add water until buttercream is light and fluffy. Add raspberry extract and Chambord and beat until smooth.

To make raspberry truffles—
In a small saucepan, boil the heavy cream.

In a large bowl, combine the chocolate and raspberry jam. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and raspberry and let sit to melt chocolate for about 3 minutes. Whisk until chocolate mixture is smooth. If chocolate does not fully melt, microwave on 15 sec intervals until smooth.

Fill a piping bag+small round tip (I used a parchment cornet) with chocolate mixture and pipe into the raspberries. Let filled raspberries sit in frig for about 15 minutes. Use immediately. (Raspberries do not keep their freshness that long.)

To assemble cupcakes—
Using a piping bag and favorite large star tip, pipe buttercream on cupcake. Sprinkled with sugar pearls and garnish with a raspberry truffle.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A+
Hubs is a big fan of the dark chocolate “cake”. I heard many comments (between bites) like “light” “fluffy” “oh so chocolatey”. Even though he usually doesn’t like any alcohol in his cupcakes he has nothing but good things to say about this buttercream. He actually licked the frosting off the cupcake. Usually he thinks there’s too much frosting on cupcakes (Blasphemy!) and tends to take 1/2 off. Score!

Wifey rating: A+
Honestly? My favorite cupcake to-date. The cake is moist and full of chocolate flavor. But the buttercream is the pièce de résistance. Oooh baby. If you don’t have time to make the cake or the raspberry truffle, make time for the buttercream. I could have licked the bowl clean.

Other rating: A+
One of my favorite clients requested some cupcakes for his Valentine but gave me free creative license to do what I wanted with flavors. Can you say PERFECT client? I came up with the raspberry truffle cupcake more with me in mind so I was a little nervous about what he and his sweetie would think. But he sent me a text message last night with 3 words “SHE SAID YES!” Aawww… I love this cupcake gig.