Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Margot asked for three things for her birthday: cupcakes, "cwockalit", and pink. These dark chocolate cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting ticked all the boxes.

And oh my goodness, were they good.

I usually prefer a thick slice of cake to a cupcake or two--something about the frosting-to-cake ratio, I think--but these might be my new go-to treat for a while. Just the right amount of strawberry sweetness to lighten the richness of the dark chocolate. They were perfect.

The strawberry frosting had me a little worried at first. I was hoping to use a piping bag to make roses yesterday, but adding the fresh strawberry puree made it far too runny for that. After being in the fridge overnight it was just thick enough for piping, though, so if that's what you want to do you'll have to plan ahead. Or you can just smear some frosting on each cupcake and call it good. They won't be as pretty that way but they'll still be tasty enough to eat two.

Which is exactly what I did. This morning. Before breakfast.

I regret nothing.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 2 dozen

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted slightly from Tish Boyle

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup Hershey's special dark chocolate cocoa powder *

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cups sour cream

3/4 cups Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line to 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl (use either a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a bowl and hand mixer) beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

Add 1/3 of dry ingredient mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low until fully incorporated. Add sour cream and mix well. Add another 1/3 of dry ingredients and mix. Add Greek yogurt and mix. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick, similar to brownie batter.

Divide batter evenly into prepared tins--I used an overfilled cookie scoop to keep the mess to a minimum--and bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

4 oz (half a block) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, softened

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup strawberry puree (I used an immersion blender on some fresh strawberries)

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Continue beating, adding powdered sugar a little at a time to avoid a white powdery mess. Beat in strawberry puree until fully incorporated. Frost cooled cupcakes and serve.

* You could probably use any cocoa powder but the Hershey's special dark stuff is my absolute favorite. It's affordable and such good quality, I haven't used anything else since I discovered it. I buy mine at Target, and I've heard you can get it at Walmart too...or you can be a baking obsessed nerd like me and buy it in bulk from Amazon. (Those are affiliate links, by the way. Just so ya know.)