Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes for Valentine's Day

Chocolate and strawberries kind of go hand-in-hand for Valentine’s Day if you ask me. But this year I decided to switch it up a little bit and turn them into chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes for Valentine’s Day!

Luckily, they’ve got 2 of my favorite things going for them when it comes to dessert:

They look impressive and can double as a centerpiece.
They’re super easy to make and can be done ahead of time.

You’d be surprised how hard it is to get that combination of traits in a dessert!

I’m not going to get into how to make a cupcake, because we all have either our favorite recipe or we swear by the ease of a box mix. I waffle somewhere between the two depending on my mood.

Since I knew I wasn’t going to focus on the cupcake part for this post, I just went with a box mix this time. If you want to avoid the box mixes or find this recipe intimidating, there are plenty of baking subscription boxes that offer Valentines themed baking projects!

Of course, I had to fancy it up a little with some red wrappers. After all, it is Valentine’s Day!

The important thing for today’s lesson, is the buttercream and the chocolate.

While I have no issue using a box cake mix, you will never ever ever find me using a tub of prepared frosting. It truly just isn’t the same thing.

Not only will it taste completely different than homemade buttercream, but you won’t be able to pipe it into pretty designs. And the height is super important when you’re going for an impressive looking cupcake.

Once you have your buttercream made, I use a large pastry bag and open hole tip to pipe swirls on the top of my cupcakes.

For the melted chocolate, I prefer ganache. Yes, you can just melt some chocolate chips with shortening, and that tastes great too. But my tastebuds are a little bit richer, and nothing calls for a decadent dessert more than Valentine’s Day!

I use equal parts chocolate and heavy cream to make my ganache and just melt it right in the microwave! I’m telling you, this really isn’t a fancy recipe. For these cupcakes, I added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of heavy cream to a glass bowl and microwaved for one minute. Stir well and if needed, heat for another 20 seconds and stir. As soon as it is completely smooth, you are ready to use it!

Let it cool for a couple minutes once you’ve melted it, but don’t let it cool too long. It will start to set after about 10 minutes or so and you want to use it while it’s still fully melted!

You can dip your strawberries and then place on a wax paper lined sheet in the fridge to let the chocolate harden. Me?? I just dip and then place right on the cupcake! It ends up giving you a nice little puddle of melted chocolate on the top of your buttercream, and you will never hear me complaining about extra chocolate!

Or you can just drizzle the ganache right on the buttercream and place a strawberry on top! Mix it up a little!

American Buttercream

This makes a fantastic buttercream to pipe with or frost a cake!

1 cup of butter (softened)
1 cup of shortening
1 2 lb bag of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp. milk or heavy cream

In a stand mixer, beat butter and shortening until well combined and no lumps remain. I often will beat it for close to 10 minutes.
Gradually add the powdered sugar. Start on the lowest speed and work your way up to medium speed.
Gradually add the vanilla extract and milk. Do not go up to the highest speed or you will get air bubbles in your frosting. Mix until well blended.
Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Rewhip in stand mixer before using.

So grab your supplies and get to baking!

Be sure to pin this recipe, so you’ll never have to search again for that perfect frosting recipe. It really is as easy and delicious as it looks.

But I’m not the only one with Valentine’s Day on the mind! Check out these other delicious recipes that some of my fellow bloggers made!

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