Chocolate Covered Love

Aria ate all the strawberries first, then ate her pancakes. No shocker there. She would happily survive on nothing but strawberries and cheese if she could.

For dinner we had homemade pizza! I made a double batch of homemade dough which came out to 3 large pizzas and 2 small. Above is a feta/goat cheese pizza, half with pesto sauce and half with marinara. We also had pepperoni pizzas and a meatlover's pizza (below).



For Aria's cake I made a chocolate layer cake with a fresh strawberry filling and pink buttercream frosting. The cake is ad odd rectangle shape because my round cake pans are in storage at the moment, so I used a 9x13 pan and then cut it in half to create the layers.

I was excited to try out the rose piping design on the outside of the cake and I'm glad it turned out as good as it did. I had some troubles with the buttercream breaking because the kitchen was too hot - so I had to keep re-beating the frosting on high and chilling the cake in the fridge every few minutes.

Aria was super proud of herself for blowing out all the candles and kept talking about it for several days afterwards.




 ^^After eating Aria played with some of her new toys with her cousin Josie.
They were making soup. :)

Happy Birthday Aria!

Chocolate-Strawberry Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcake batter

- 3/4 cup flour

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temp

- 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/8 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 cup hot water

- 1 extra-large egg

- 1/4 cup buttermilk

Frosting

- 3 3/4 cup powdered sugar

- 1 1/2 cups margarine

- 1/2 TB vanilla essence (or 3/4 TB vanilla extract)

- 1/8 cup plus 1 TB cold water

Strawberry filling

- 10 medium strawberries, finely diced

- 2 TB sugar

- 1 tsp cornstarch

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350.

Put the flour, sugar, butter, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the ingredients are blended together, then increase speed to med-low for one minute to mix until smooth.

Add in hot water with mixer running. Add in the egg. With the mixer still running add in the buttermilk. Make sure to scrape the bottom with a spatula to ensure all the ingredients are well combined. Mix for an additional minute on med-low speed. 

Put paper liners in a standard sized cupcake/muffin tin and divide the batter equally into each cup.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake.

Let the cupcakes cool to room temp before removing them from the pan and onto a wire cooling rack.

Frosting

Put the margarine, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment and mix at medium-low speed until the mixture is smooth with no lumps, about 3 minutes.

With the mixer running, add the water in a thin stream and continue to mix until absorbed, about 3 minutes more. At this point you can add whatever coloring you like and mix until well combined.

(Leftover buttercream can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

Strawberry Filling

In a small bowl combine diced strawberries and sugar and let it sit until the strawberries release their natural juices. Then add the cornstarch and mix to dissolve.

Assembly

Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, take a paring knife and cut a triangle-hole halfway down the center of the cupcake (you can eat the cut-out scraps). In the hole of each cupcake put a spoonful of the strawberry filling (you may have leftovers), and top with the frosting. 

I used a star tip to frost the cupcakes but you may used whatever you want. I also added some sprinkles to the top of each cupcake as additional decoration.

Enjoy!