Busy, busy, busy...

Wow! It's been busy around here. Here's a quick peek at what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks.

That's right, cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes! Trying recipes over and over and trying to decide which ones would be perfect for my cousin's wedding. Then I moved on to gum paste daisies, then even more cupcakes. I finally settled on 4 cupcake recipes, and they were an absolute hit! I made over 200 for the wedding, and by the end of the night there were less than 12 left! This recipe makes 32 cupcakes, but it is easy to cut in half, or even quarter if you're wanting a smaller batch.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

1 c butter, softened

2 1/2 c sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c cocoa powder

1 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Ina a separate bowl combine milk and vanilla.

Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to butter mixture, mix until incorporated. Add 1/2 of milk to butter mixture, mixing until incorporated. Continue adding dry then wet ingredients, ending with dry. Beat well after each addition.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 22-25 minutes at 350.

Makes 32 cupcakes.

Chocolate/Strawberry Ganache

9 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 c heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

2/3 c diced strawberries

Put chocolate in heat proof bowl. Heat cream in saucepan until bubbles form around the edges. Pour cream over chocolate and let sit 1 minute; stir to combine. Add vanilla and salt.

Divide ganache in half. In one portion add diced strawberries. Transfer this portion to the refrigerator to cool. Leave remaining ganache sitting on the counter. (Yes, the ganache in the fridge will thicken faster, this is what you want!)

Strawberry Buttercream

1 cup butter

2 T pureed, strained strawberry juice (I used my juicer)

1 t vanilla

4-6 c icing sugar

Cream butter until soft. Add strawberry puree and vanilla. Mix in 4 cups of icing sugar, adding more until desired consistency is reached.

Now to put it all together....

Using the cone method fill the cooled cupcakes with the strawberry portion of the ganache. Next glaze the top of the cupcakes with the remaining ganache. After this has set ice with the strawberry buttercream.