Chocolate Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes make a pretty dessert for Valentine's Day. Homemade chocolate cupcakes with both chocolate and strawberry buttercream.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate cupcakes, strawberries, valentines day
Prepare cupcake pans with 24 liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk well.
In a stand mixer, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla together. Slowly add in the mix of dry ingredients while the mixer is on low. Add the coffee and make sure everything is combined. The batter will be very thin.
Fill the cupcake cups about ½ to ⅔ full and bake for about 18-21 minutes or until the center of the cupcake springs back when you touch it.
Allow the cupcakes to cool on a cooling rack. While the cake is cooling, make the frostings.
Make the chocolate buttercream:
In a stand mixer with the beater blade, beat the butter for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth, creamy and nearly white in appearance.
Add in the salt and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
Add the heavy cream, a tablespoon at a time, mixing slowly until it is the consistency that you'd like.
Beat for 1 minute on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
Make the strawberry buttercream:
Place the freeze dried strawberries into a food processor and pulse until it makes a fine powder.
In a stand mixer bowl, with the mixer on medium speed, whip the butter for 2 minutes until it is almost white in color. Make sure the butter is at room temperature, but not melted.
Add in the powdered sugar, strawberry powder, vanilla and cream.
Beat on low speed for 3-5 minutes, adding in another tablespoon of milk if the buttercream needs to be thinner for piping.
Assemble the cupcakes:
To get the two tone effect, fit a piping bag with a Wilton 1M piping nozzle then hold the bag open and use a spatula to spread the chocolate buttercream on one side of the bag and the strawberry buttercream on the other.
Pipe swirls of strawberry and chocolate buttercream on top of the cupcakes.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 48 hours, then refrigerate or freeze.
Notes
If you can’t get hold of freeze dried strawberries you can substitute for fresh strawberries. Puree 1/4 cup of strawberries in a food processor, add to a saucepan and reduce the puree down by half. Add to the buttercream in place of freeze dried.Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.The calories shown are based on the recipe making 24 cupcakes, with 1 serving being 1 cupcake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**