Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with Brandy Soaked Strawberries and Chantilly Cream

If there’s one thing in life I can’t live without (besides french fries) it would have to be cupcakes. Even on my worst days, if there was the perfect cupcake waiting for me at home all my troubles would melt away during that brief moment when I’m stuffing my face.

Let’s get real people, life is too short to go on those crazy “no carb, no meat, no sugar aka nothing fun” diets. I feel anything in moderation is fine, but don’t get me wrong — this recipe will definitely be hard for any normal person to resist from just eating one. The secret ingredient for this chocolate cake is coffee, it really makes the chocolate taste richer adding a nice body to it and BOY is it moist! Not to mention the grownup filling of the brandy soaked strawberries topped off with a sweet chantilly cream, these cupcakes would be perfect for any occassion.

I think one of my favorite parts about desserts is the give-ability factor. Not only does it save YOU calories but you are spreading the love to others. Whenever I bake I usually send some to my neighbors, friends and family — it’s kind of a nice unexpected “pick me up” for maybe a stressful, boring, or busy week. Plus, when you give these bad boys away I can gurantee you will suddenly have many “best friends”, hell, girls you may even win a husband with this recipe. Anyways, enough talk about how freaking delicious these cupcakes are — here’s the recipe!

(I don’t know why I can’t revert my text out of italics — WP is being strange, but I kinda like it

) Have a great weekend folks

Ingredients for Moist Chocolate Cupcakes: (Makes 12-18 cupcakes)

1 3/4 cup All-Purpose flour
2 cup sugar
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup coffee

Preheat the oven to 350F.

For the chocolate cake, mix all of the dry ingredients together so they are evenly distributed. Add the wet ingredients one at a time as listed, until fully incorporated. This ensures the batter comes out nice and smooth. Line the muffin pans with cupcake liners and pour the batter about 3/4 of the way, leaving room for the cake to rise when baking. Place in the oven for 20 minutes, you can check the doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle, if it comes out clean it is ready (Because oven temperatures differ, if the batter is still wet leave for 5 minutes longer, repeat until done.) Set aside and cool.

Ingredients for Brandy Soaked Strawberries:

1 lb container fresh strawberries, cleaned thoroughly and hulled
1 cup brandy
1/4 cup honey

In a large container or bowl, whisk the brandy and honey together. Small dice the strawberries and immerse completely in the brandy honey mixture. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.

(You can use any remaining strawberries you don’t use in the cupcakes as an ice cream topping!)

Ingredients for Chantilly Cream:

1 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Using an hand held beater or electric stand mixer, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add in the sugar and vanilla and beat until just stiff. Be sure not to over whip your cream, if your cream curdles gradually beat in more cream until it becomes smooth again.

To assemble cupcakes first cut a cone like shape off the top of each cupcake in order to create a space for the strawberry filling. (Baking Bites offers a nice step-by-step photos here.) Carefully spoon the brandied strawberries into each cupcake and place the lids on top. Using a pastry bag with a star tip, apply the chantilly cream on the top of each cupcake — you can be creative as to how you would like to apply the topping, I chose to do a simple swirl. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles and sliced strawberries if desired.