Chopsticks + Chocolate + Cherries = Perfect Valentine's Day Cupcakes!

How romantic is Valentine's Day? Really? In my 22 years, I've only had one Valentine's Day that actually contained any romance. Most years, it's about the chocolate. This year, my friend and I planned a fun evening of Chocolate Cupcakes and Thai food!

I mentioned in my last post that the Cherry Whipped Cream Recipe yielded WAY more than I needed for 14 cupcakes, so I bagged up the leftovers, scoured for new recipes, and brought my ideas and ziplock bag full of whipped cream to my friend's apartment last Tuesday after work. The plan was to order in Thai food, watch the New Girl on TV, and nosh on "baked" goods. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

I found a recipe on one of my favorite cupcake blogs for microwavable chocolate spice cupcakes that I figured would make a perfect base for the rest of the Cherry Whipped Cream, which naturally was the true star of the evening!

The recipe called for milk, which was the only ingredient my friend and I didn't have between the two of us. Rather than buy it new, I figured we'd improvise a bit. Whipped Cream is a dairy product whipped up with air and sugar, and I thought it would work just as well, if not better than milk.

We mixed up a batch, subbing in only 4 teaspoons of Cherry Whipped Cream for the milk, filled two silicone cupcake liners to the rim, and plopped them into the microwave for 1 minute.

Aaaaaaand.... they exploded:

We also didn't know how the cakes should feel once they were done, (and I couldn't reach the microwave) so we kept cooking them for another few minutes, figuring we'd probably already destroyed them anyway. Fresh out of the microwave, we plopped on some whipped cream, and prepared to chow down...

Chopsticks in hand (oh yeah!) we ate our rubbery, chocolatey, nicely spiced cupcakes, and chatted about what we thought went wrong.

We figured a few things could have gone wrong.

1. We cooked the cupcakes too long
2. We filled the liners too high
3. We didn't account for the extra air and volume the whipped cream added

So, we cut back the amount of whipped cream in the batter, cut out the extra sugar, (figuring the whipped cream contained sugar already) and microwaved the cupcakes for just one minute and 15 seconds - no more rubber cupcakes! This time, they were perfect!

So again, we topped them with whipped cream and cherries, and ate them with chopsticks!

Perfectly chocolate!

And no, I did NOT plan the "his and hers" colored cupcake liners we ended up with - it happened completely by chance!


Microwavable Chocolate Spice Cupcakes for Two (recipe adapted from Cupcake Project):
Recipe yields Two cupcakes!

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 1/2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground all spice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
• 1/2 egg, whipped
• 4 teaspoons Cherry Whipped Cream

Directions:

• Combine all of the dry ingredients in a small bowl
• Add in butter, egg, and whipped cream
• Divide evenly between two silicone cupcake liners
• Microwave on high for 1 minute and 15 seconds
• If cupcakes do not bounce back lightly when touched, continue microwaving at 15 second intervals until they do
• Top with more Cherry Whipped Cream (because it's awesome!) and a cherry

Optional: Eat with chopsticks! It's fun!

Happy Baking!!

Pin It