Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Chocolate and strawberry are a match made in heaven. It's such a classic combo. So I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything that sound much better than fluffy chocolate cupcakes that are topped with a sweet, creamy strawberry frosting!

INGREDIENTS TO MAKE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

To start, you'll first need to make the chocolate cupcakes! Here's your shopping list:

• All-purpose flour

• Cocoa powder

• Baking powder

• Salt

• Granulated sugar

• Vegetable oil

• Milk

• Coffee

• Eggs

• Vanilla extract

MAKING THE CUPCAKES

This cupcake recipe is a super simple, one-bowl recipe that can be whipped up in no time at all! Start by combining all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl. This is going to be the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar. Next, add in the vegetable oil, eggs, milk, coffee, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the cupcake batter is smooth.

This recipe makes about 14 cupcakes, so you'll need two muffin pans, lining 14 with paper cupcake liners. Pour the batter evenly into each liner. Each one should be filled about ⅔ of the way full. Do not fill cupcake liners to the top. Once all the liners are filled, pop the cupcakes into a preheated 350°F for 19-22 minutes. Once baked, let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

INGREDIENTS FOR STRAWBERRY FROSTING

The most important part of a cupcake is the frosting, right? These bad boys are topped with a perfectly sweet strawberry frosting. Here's what you'll need to make it:

• Freeze-dried strawberries

• Unsalted butter

• Powdered sugar

• Heavy cream

• Vanilla extract

• Salt

MAKING THE FROSTING

This frosting is super simple to make. Here's what you'll need to do:

Step 1: Add the freeze-dried strawberries to a food processor. Process them for 10-20 seconds until they're powder/really small bits.

Step 2: Cream the softened butter until smooth. Add in the rest of the frosting ingredients; this is the freeze-dried strawberry powder, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, and pinch of salt, adding the powdered sugar about a cup at a time, then mix.

Step 3: Once everything is combined, mix the frosting on a medium speed for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. That's it!

Now you can either pipe or spread your frosting onto the cooled cupcakes!

TIPS FOR THE BEST CUPCAKES

Even though this recipe is so easy to make, here are just a few simple tips you can do to make sure you get the best cupcakes possible!

Sift the cocoa powder. Sometimes cocoa powder can be clumpy, and it can be hard to break up the clumps once it's incorporated into a batter. The best thing you can do to avoid this is once you measure out your cocoa powder, use a fine metal sifter to sift it into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners evenly, and don't overfill. This recipe should result in the perfect amount of cupcake batter to fill each cupcake liner between no less than half, but no more than ⅔ of the way full. You want to be sure to fill them each evenly and not overfill them. This will ensure that once they bake, all of the cupcakes will be the same size.

Cool the cupcakes completely. This is a fairly simple and obvious tip, but you always want to make sure that your cupcakes are completely cool before frosting them so that strawberry frosting doesn't melt!

If you give this recipe a try and love it, be sure to leave a comment and star rating! Be sure to tag @thehungrykitchenblog on Instagram so I can see all of your delicious bakes! Happy baking! ♥