Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

These chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes are the perfect sweet treat for Valentine’s Day – angel food cupcakes with strawberry whipped cream frosting!

PREP TIME: 30 minutes

COOK TIME: 12 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 42 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 box Betty Crocker angel food cake mix
• 4 teaspoons gelatin
• 4 cups (1L) heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
• red food colouring (optional)
• 30 strawberries, washed, dried and chilled
• 8 ounces (225g) dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners and set aside.
3. Prepare the cake mix batter according to the package directions and spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.
4. Bake the cupcakes for 11-12 minutes, or until the tops are cracked and dry to the touch. Let them cool completely.
5. In a small bowl, stir the gelatin into 4 tablespoons of cold water and let it stand for 5 minutes, or until it is thickened. Heat it carefully in the microwave for about 30 seconds to melt the gelatin.
6. With a stand mixer or an electric mixer, beat the whipping cream with the powdered sugar and strawberry jam for about a minute.
7. Slowly pour in the gelatin while the mixer is running.
8. Continue beating the cream until stiff peaks form, adding a few drops of food colouring at the end of the beating time if desired.
9. Put the strawberry whipped cream into a piping bag with a 1M tip for piping onto the cupcakes, and pipe it in a swirl, starting from the outside of the cupcake and moving into the middle.
10. In a medium bowl, melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave at 50% power, for 3-4 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until the chocolate is just about fully melted. Continue stirring until it is completely melted.
11. Spoon about a teaspoon of melted chocolate onto the top of a decorated cupcake, then dip a chilled strawberry into the chocolate, letting the excess chocolate drip off, and press the dipped strawberry onto the top of the cupcake. Repeat for the rest of the strawberries.
12. The decorated cupcakes will keep for 2-3 days in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

Notes

You may have some leftover strawberry whipped cream, depending on how big a swirl you put on each cupcake – it keeps well in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Also, 8 ounces of chocolate was enough for me to dip all 30 strawberries, but they were on the small side, so depending on the size of your strawberries, you may need a bit more chocolate to dip them all. I do recommend using chopped baking chocolate rather than chocolate chips for dipping as it does melt nicer.