Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

My friend Lisa visited this weekend.  She is a math teacher in Connecticut and we became friends living next to each other in our apartment complex.  Her daughter Bailey is a beautiful and busy 5 year old who always makes us laugh and smile with her antics but since Lisa and Bailey moved to Connecticut it's been a while since we have seen each other.  By a while, I mean about a year.  However, this week is Lisa's spring break and she decided that the best place to spend her first weekend off would be with me at Penn State!  What a great decision that was!  She arrived in the evening on Friday and got to spend time grading papers and catching up on sleep while I worked.  After sleeping in on Saturday morning, we hit our favorite restaurant  Waffle Shop, for breakfast and the decided to hike Mt. Nittany with my upstairs neighbor and mutual friend Nicole.  We had an awesome, sweaty, laughter filled time.  Coming back exhausted we decided to spend a simple night hanging out and enjoying some girl time.  

  Sunday found Lisa and I shopping and walking downtown.  We went into just about every store in downtown State College and had a blast doing it.  From some super cute summer dresses to Penn State souvenirs, there was never a dull moment.  As we headed back to my place to watch movies and enjoy a quiet Sunday evening, I decided that I needed to make Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.  I had willing and very enthusiastic tasters (Nicole and Lisa) and all the stuff to make these delicious morsels.  

   I'll be honest with you, at first I didn't think that there was enough cherry flavor in the chocolate batter.  I mean come on, I wanted it to scream CHERRY.  However, with the trusting taste buds of my friends, I realized it did taste like cherry and that I should just bake them already.  (Truth is, I think they might have just been hungry.)  So into the oven these little darlings went.  However, 14 minutes is a lie or else I fill my cupcakes a little full.  These took more like 16 to 18 minutes, but make sure to check on them fairly frequently.  Maybe my oven isn't as hot as where this recipe originally came from, so just pay attention is the best advice I can give you.  

   The frosting is also divine, who would have thought?  Butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, cherry juice and some raspberry extract... yumm, not a bad combination.  Here is the original recipe that I found, but I've done a few small changes.  Instead of just milk chocolate cocoa powder, I did a 1/4 cup of dark chocolate cocoa powder for a rich dark chocolate taste and a hint of raspberry extract in the frosting really helped bring out the cherry flavor (If you don't have it, don't worry, it'll still be awesome!) I also made chocolate dipped cherries for decoration on top.  Delicious and easy! 

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter (softened)
1/2 cup light sour cream or mayonnaise (this makes the cake super light and
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk chocolate cocoa powder
1/2 cup cherry juice (from a jar of maraschino cherries)
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cups flour

Frosting
1/2 cup butter (softened)
8oz cream cheese (softened) 

3 cups powdered sugar 

1/2 tsp raspberry extract

3-5 tablespoons cherry juice (from a jar of maraschino cherries)

Directions 

 Preheat oven to 350*.   In a large bowl beat together butter, mayonnaise/sour cream, and sugars until smooth. Add in the cocoas and cherry juice and mix well.  Add the salt, eggs, and milk and mix until well combined.  Gradually add in the soda, baking powder, and flour. Once combined mix on high for one minute. Place 24 liners into cupcake pans and fill with cake batter 2/3 of the way. Bake about 16/18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cool on racks completely before frosting.

Frosting
 Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in powdered sugar and beat really well.  Pour in cherry juice one TBS at a time and continue beating until it reaches the desired consistency. Frost cooled cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a cherry. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Dipped Cherries 

Take 24 maraschino cherries and lay them out on a paper towel.  Take another paper town and lay it over the cherries, press VERY GENTLY until the cherries are dry.  In the meantime take about 4 Tbsp of milk chocolate chips and melt them gently in the microwave, about 30 seconds at a time until melted.  Then dip the dry cherries in the chocolate and place on wax paper.  Put in the refrigerator for 10/15 minutes  or until hard.  Peel off the wax paper and place them on top of the frosting.  Eat and Enjoy!