Valentine's Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes

  
Every time I go to the grocery store, I walk down the baking aisle.

It doesn't matter if I need anything there or not...

I go for inspiration!

Sometimes I will come up with a new recipe right there, standing in the aisle.

Sometimes I will find something new that sparks an idea.

Something like this...

Cherry Baking Morsels!

You can bet I snatched these up in a hurry.

And my mind began furiously coming up with recipes to use them!

The first thing I thought of was melting them to make Valentine's Day cupcake toppers.

So I made these cute little curly hearts.

My hearts aren't perfectly shaped, since I made them freehand.
Just put your melted morsels in a decorating bag or ziploc with the corner snipped off.
Then pipe some hearts on wax paper and wait for them to get hard.

Next, I came up with this recipe for Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes.

The flavor is fantastic...just like a chocolate covered cherry!

Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes

by Bird On A Cake

6040993

Ingredients

Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup cherry baking morsels (may substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Chocolate Cherry Buttercream

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and cherry extracts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream to the batter until thoroughly combined. Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water in a small bowl until smooth, then add to the batter. Fold in the cherry morsels.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 with batter and bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Cherry Buttercream

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on low speed. Add cherry extract and milk, mix well. Mix in the melted chocolate. Keep covered.

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Want to see the inside?

I found the cherry baking morsels and the cherry extract at Walmart.

It may be hard for some of you to find the cherry morsels, so I did a little research.

You can buy them here and here.

OR, you could substitute chocolate chips in this recipe

...it would still be delicious!

 Enjoy!

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