Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes: Sweet strawberry cupcakes are covered in chocolate ganache for a dessert inspired by the classic confection.
One of the things my son and husband request every time their birthdays roll around is strawberry cake. Now, I’m not quite the stickler I once was for seasonality, but they could never convince me to bake up a strawberry cake in autumn.
I save strawberry treats like strawberry jalapeño palmiers and strawberry mint ricotta tart for strawberry season. Sorry, boys.
Of course, that means once spring comes back around and the strawberries are beautiful and fragrant, I compensate by making some cupcakes “just because.”
After all, who can say no to cupcakes, especially ones drenched in chocolate?
chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes from scratch
These chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes were inspired by those chocolate-covered berries we’ve all come to expect for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day (apparently guys aren’t supposed to want desserts for Father’s Day).
To be honest, those are always kind of a letdown for me, because the hard chocolate always falls off the berry. And because the berries are too big to eat in one bite, you’re left with a mess and half a naked berry. Awkward.
Turning the idea into cupcakes solves the problem. We blend ripe strawberries to fold into the batter and then dip the baked cupcakes into smooth bittersweet ganache.
I like to grab fresh strawberries for these chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes when I can. But since we are pureeing them anyway, you could use thawed frozen berries if fresh are out of season.
No reason to spend a million dollars on a handful of berries for these cupcakes.
Making the strawberry cupcakes from scratch is quite easy and much faster than you think. It also seems fitting for a Valentine to present a cupcake you baked from scratch, don’t you think?
how to decorate chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes
I know some people get flummoxed by the idea of creating frosting for cakes, so ganache is your new best friend. All you need is cream and chocolate (whatever variety you like best), and absolutely no decorating tools.
It reminds me of when I was kid and we made frosting using the Jiffy boxes. We didn’t have any tools, so they only way to decorate cupcakes was to dunk ‘em right into the frosting.
Ganache is just the grown-up version.
To make the ganache topping, all you have to do is heat the cream and then whisk in the chocolate. Two steps. Done.
Then just dip the tops of your strawberry cupcakes into the ganache. You’ll have a beautiful, shiny chocolate coating with almost no effort.
You don’t have to save this trick for chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes! Try it on peppermint mocha cupcakes for an extra dose of chocolate or even on birthday cupcakes in lieu of the chocolate frosting.
You can decorate these strawberry cupcakes with more fresh berries if you like, or just leave the tops smooth and glossy. Either way, they’re totally impressive and totally a way to get you out of doing the dishes for at least a few days.
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pureed strawberries , about 6-8 whole strawberries
- 8 ounces heavy whipping cream
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a muffin tin with papers.
- Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth. Add milk and vanilla, mixing to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in strawberry puree.
- Divide batter among muffin papers. Bake 16 minutes and let cool on a rack.
- While the cupcakes are cooling, heat cream in a small saucepan over medium-high. Once the cream starts to lightly bubble, remove it from heat and whisk in the chocolate. Continue whisking until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache and let rest until firm.
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