Devil Food Cupcakes

Wishing you all a wonderful day filled with pink hearts, red roses, dark chocolate and LOVE!  Valentine's Day would not be the same without a sweet treat and cupcakes are a great way to celebrate the day.  These cupcakes are rich devil's food topped with a creamy, buttery frosting tinted pink for the occasion.  I piped on a rose design but swirls would look great too.

The cupcake crumb is light, fluffy and  simply of divine - nothing dense or dry about these guys. The rich frosting is the perfect topper and super simple to make:  just butter, powdered sugar, some cream,  vanilla extract and voila - an amazing frosting!  Tint it with some red or pink gel until you have the color you want.  Initially I was thinking a deep red for these but when I saw the pink color I fell in love.

What I appreciate about this recipe is the use of good quality cocoa powder,  plenty of butter and 4 eggs for richness and yogurt for moisture.  The original recipe calls for sour cream but I went with full fat plain yogurt instead not because I was trying to conserve calories but because it was all I had available.  Yogurt is always my sour cream standby and never lets me down.

This recipe makes A LOT of cupcakes.  Though it says 36 I ended up with about 28 but still, that's a lot. I sent the majority to my daughter's school class but did keep a few lovelies here for us to enjoy this evening after a celebratory dinner.  It is very hard though to walk past them and not indulge.

If you need to transport cupcakes then please invest in a decent carrier case.  This one by Wilton holds 24 regular sized cupcakes and was a steal for under $20 at a local Home Sense store.

So let's get at it, shall we?

RECIPE:
*adapted source recipe: Devil's Food Cupcakes with  Fluffy Vanilla Frosting, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes


WHAT YOU NEED

CUPCAKES
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder -  Cocoa Barry Extra Brute or Valrhona are 2 good choices
3/4 cup hot water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plain full-fat yogurt at room temperature (or full-fat sour cream)

FROSTING
1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter at room temperature (3 sticks)
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 -2 tablespoons heavy cream
food coloring

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350F
LINE muffin tins with paper liners

CUPCAKES
IN MEDIUM BOWL,  whisk together cocoa powder and hot water until a smooth paste forms; set aside
IN MEDIUM BOWL, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
IN MEDIUM SAUCEPAN,  melt butter and sugar
POUR BUTTER mixture into bowl of stand mixture fitted with paddle attachment and beat on MED speed for 5 minutes
ADD eggs one at a time beating well after each addition
ADD vanilla and cocoa powder mixture blending until incorporated into batter
REDUCE speed to low and add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with yogurt
STIR just until combined
FILL  muffin liners 3/4 full with batter
BAKE 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
LET COOL completely before frosting

FROSTING
BEAT butter on high speed with electric mixture until smooth and creamy
ADD in remaining ingredients (add only 1 tbsp of cream at this stage) and beat on HIGH speed for 5 minutes
ADD food coloring, one drop at a time, blending after each addition until you have the color you like
ADD more cream if required to reach desired consistency
PIPE frosting onto cooled cupcakes

ENJOY !

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