A Tale of Two Cupcakes
Transform one easy cocoa batter into cookies & cream and chocolate-dipped strawberry cupcakes
My chocolate-dipped strawberry cupcakes will make anyone fall in love with you! They are as perfect for Valentine's Day as they are in early summer when strawberries come into season. They start with rich, moist vegan chocolate cake, the same recipe as my Salted Dark Chocolate Cake, but in cupcake form. Then, the cupcakes get filled with strawberry jam, frosted with a decadent swirl of strawberry buttercream, and finished with a drizzle of dark chocolate and a strawberry slice. Just like a chocolate-dipped strawberry, but even more delicious.
And for an Oreo-inspired treat for my paid subscribers, keep scrolling for Cookies & Cream Cupcakes!
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Cupcakes
Makes 12 standard-size cupcakes
1 hour active time, 3 hours total time
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcake Batter
80 g (1/3 cup) hot brewed coffee or espresso
34 g (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) Dutch-process cocoa powder
8 g (1 ½ tbsp) flaxseed meal
70 g (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) water
150 g (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
2.5 g (1/2 tsp) baking soda
3.75 g (3/4 tsp) baking powder
3 g (1 tsp) kosher salt (Diamond Crystal or see note below)
75 g (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) vegetable oil
10 g (2 tsp) vanilla extract
80 g (1/3 cup) full-fat oat milk
220 g (1 cup, lightly packed) light brown sugar
Finishing Touches
1 recipe Vegan Strawberry American Buttercream, room temperature
80 g (1/4 cup) strawberry jam
60 g (1/3 cup) dark chocolate chips
5 g (1 tsp) vegetable oil
Fresh strawberries, small and nicely proportioned
Instructions
Make the Chocolate Cupcake Batter and bake the cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven
Line a 12-cup standard-size muffin pan with paper liners and lightly grease with cooking spray
Whisk together the coffee and cocoa until there are no lumps remaining and set aside to cool to room temperature
Whisk together the flaxseed meal and water in a medium bowl and allow the mixture to firm up for about 5 mins
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl
In the bowl with the flax egg, add the vegetable oil, vanilla, oat milk, and brown sugar, and whisk to combine
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until smooth
Divide the batter equally among the 12 prepared cups and bake for 20-25 mins, until a tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out mostly clean, with a few moist crumbs attached
Allow the cupcakes to cool for about 30 mins in the muffin pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour longer
Baked cupcakes keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days
Frost and finish the cupcakes
In a small bowl, melt the chocolate chips by microwaving them in 30-sec increments; once melted, mix with the oil and set aside to cool to room temperature, making sure it doesn't solidify
Cut a handful of strawberries into quarters; select the 12 most beautiful slices, and set aside
Holding a small serrated knife at a 45-degree angle, cut a hole about 1 inch in diameter and 1 inch in depth in the center of each cupcake
Remove the "lid" and scrape off the majority of the cake from this piece (feel free to snack on it!)
Fill each hole with about 1 tsp of strawberry jam, then replace the lids
Once the cupcakes are cool, fit a piping bag with a Wilton 1M or other large open-star tip and fill it with half the buttercream
Position the tip of the piping bag at a 90-degree angle, about an inch above the cupcake
Start piping frosting in the center of the cupcake, then move down to the lower edge of the cupcake, then move the bag in a clockwise motion around the edge of the cupcake until you have reached the lower edge again, then slowly bring the bag up, and continue piping in an upward, spiral motion, bringing the bag closer and closer to the center until finishing in a peak; release the pressure on the piping bag
Pipe frosting on half the cupcakes, then fit a new piping bag with the remaining frosting and frost the rest (this is to prevent the frosting from getting too warm when it is in contact with your hands holding the bag)
Fill another piping bag with the melted chocolate mixture and snip a hole about 1/8 inch in diameter at the tip of the bag
Pipe a drizzle of chocolate in a line across each cupcake, at roughly the 1/3 mark
Place a strawberry quarter in the center of each cupcake, roughly perpendicular to the chocolate drizzle
Frosted cupcakes keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days; allow the cupcakes to come to room temperature before serving
Notes & Variations
Ingredient Notes
Kosher salt: I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which has larger crystals than other kinds of kosher salt, normal table salt or fine sea salt. As a result, when measured by volume (teaspoons/tablespoons) it will add less "saltiness" than an equal quantity of the other salts. If you are not using Diamond Crystal, I recommend measuring your salt by weight, in which case you won't run into this issue. Otherwise, use half the volume quantity of salt
Vegan butter: There are two main types of vegan butter: (1) margarine-style products that are basically butter-flavored vegetable shortening (e.g. Violife), and (2) cultured-style products made from cashew, coconut, or other kinds of fats (e.g. Miyoko's). I generally prefer the first type in cakes, muffins, and frostings, where the more obvious "butter" flavor and greater stability, and yellow color are beneficial. I prefer the second type in recipes where the fat will caramelize, such as cookies, pie or tart dough, and bread, as margarine-style butters can develop unpleasant burnt oil flavors when heated to high temperatures. Also, cultured-style butter can be browned similarly to dairy butter, while margarine-style butter cannot
Things I Used
As an Amazon Affiliate and Food52 Curator, I earn a small commission on anything purchased through these links
Ingredients
Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla extract
Valrhona Dutch-processed cocoa powder
Equipment
The best-kept vegan secret, in my opinion? Oreos! Yes, Oreos are vegan, and so are these rich, decadent cookies & cream cupcakes. They start with the same dark chocolate cake base as the Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Cupcakes and Salted Dark Chocolate Cake, only I've subbed some of the Dutch-process cocoa for black cocoa, the same kind used in Oreos, which gives the cakes a jet-black color and rich flavor. The cupcakes are topped with a layer of cookie crumbs for extra texture and then frosted with cookie-crumb-laced vanilla buttercream and finished with a cookie slice. I bet you can't eat just one!
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