Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry center

Strawberry surprise!

What's better than a chocolate covered strawberry? How about a chocolate cupcake covered strawberry?

As I said in my last post, I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes for this week, but I always prefer to mix things up a little bit. I came across a picture (on Pinterest, as always) of these chocolate cupcakes with strawberries in the middle. They were called "sweetheart" cupcakes because when you cut them in half, they look like cute red hearts.

I completely intended to make the cupcakes from scratch, but it has been an insane week at work and at home, so due to time, I had to resort to a box mix. I changed the instructions on the box though to make it taste more "from scratch." To do so, I added on extra egg, doubled and replaced the oil with melted butter, and substituted water with almond milk. This results in the cupcakes being more moist. However, I did stop myself from using canned frosting and instead whipped up my own chocolate buttercream frosting!

Looking back, I probably should have stuck with the original recipe on the box. The cupcakes did turn out pretty moist, but since they also had a strawberry core, they turned out a little soggier than I expected. The taste was fine; it was just a little difficult to eat! I stuck them in the fridge in hopes they will dry up a little before I brought them to work tomorrow. Overall though, these turned out pretty well and very cute!

Chocolate cupcakes galore!

Sweetheart Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 24)

Chocolate cupcakes: 

• 1 box of chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1.25 cup almond milk
• 24 strawberries, washed and cored

Chocolate buttercream frosting: (adapted from here)

• 6 tbsp of butter, softened
• 2.5 cups of powdered sugar
• 0.5 cups cocoa powder
• 1/3 cups of almond milk
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix cake mix with eggs, butter, and milk. Pour 2/3 full into lined cupcake tins. Bake according to directions on the box (for me, that was 25 minutes at 325C)
2. Mix up the frosting while waiting. Beat the butter and then add into sugar and cocoa powder. Finally, mix in the milk and vanilla. 
3. Let the cupcakes cool, and then core out a strawberry-shaped hole in the center of each cupcake. Stick the strawberry (pointy side down) in each cupcake. Take a portion of the cupcake piece that was cut off and cover the strawberry. 
4. Frost the cupcakes and enjoy!