Cupcake Party – Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

I love parties! I love to go to parties! I love to throw them! I think there are many things to celebrate, not only birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. Therefore I now dedicated my Friday posts to parties: to creative party invitations, to easy-to-make party food, to party decorations that make all the difference... I hope you feel inspired by the festive atmosphere on Fridays and celebrate many small and big events.

Yesterday I had a pretty average day. Grey skies. A sick child. Too little sleep. Well, that sort of things. Anyway, I wish I had a few of my favourite Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes left from my last party. They would have cheered me up immediately. Without fault. The problem is: they are too yummy. So you will never have any leftovers ;-( Even if you double the amount straightaway ;-)

CUPCAKES:
1 cup sugar
½ cup softened butter
3 chunks of baking chocolate (‘Zartbitter Kuverture’)
2 eggs
2/3 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup cherries (fresh and pitted or from a glass and drained)
1 packet vanilla sugar

Cream sugar and butter. Melt chocolate over a water quench. Add melted chocolate and eggs to sugar-butter mix and beat. Add flour and baking powder. When well mixed, add nuts,

cherries,

and vanilla sugar. Fill paper lined muffin tins half full.

Bake at 375 degrees for 17 minutes. Let cupcakes cool and then frost.

FROSTING:
1 1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar (‘Puderzucker’)
2 tablespoon softened butter
1 chunk of baking chocolate
2 tablespoon hot, strong coffee
1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Cream butter and chocolate. Add the sifted sugar and then the coffee and the vanilla sugar. Beat well until a smooth consistency. Fill into a plastic bag with a small hole at the bottom...

and spread onto cold cupcakes.

Add decorations like sugar hearts or flowers or hundreds and thousands.

Pretty impressive, isn’t it? And it is really manageable. These were the first real cupcakes I have ever made. And they looked really good, I think. And tasted even better. So give it a go. Your guests will be very happy, I promise.

Inspired by Aunt Muriel’s Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes found here