These cupcakes are our take on chocolate dipped strawberries, but in cupcake form! In this recipe we use our Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix to bake up a dozen and a half cupcakes. The strawberry swiss meringue frosting has a marshmallow-y quality that keeps its shape without feeling too heavy. Finish off the cupcakes by quickly dipping them in melted semi-sweet or white chocolate for a sweet spring dessert.
2 cups
Freeze Dried Strawberries, ground into a fine powder
(35 g)
1 ½ cups
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or White Chocolate Chips
(235 g)
2 Tbsp
Coconut Oil
(30 g)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line two standard cupcake pans with a total of 18 liners.
Pour cake mix into a bowl. Make a well in the center and add in eggs, milk and oil. Stir to combine. Add in the boiling water to create a very loose batter. Portion batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
To make the Swiss meringue frosting, fill a large saucepan with 1-2 inches of water and set the bowl of a stand mixer inside, creating a double boiler. The water should not touch the base of the mixing bowl.
Bring the water to a simmer and add the egg whites and sugar into the mixing bowl. Heat and whisk the mixture until it registers 160ºF, about 5-7 minutes. The mixture will become white and creamy. Once brought to the proper temperature, the egg whites will be cooked and the sugar should be melted. There should be no residual grittiness from the sugar.
Carefully remove the mixing bowl from the heat and set it into a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk for 4 minutes, gradually increasing the speed from low to medium. Pause to add the powdered freeze dried strawberries, then bring the mixer up to high and whisk for an additional 3-4 minutes, until very stiff peaks form and the frosting is no longer warm. The texture should be voluminous and hold its shape.
Transfer the frosting into a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Pipe a generous swirl of frosting on each cupcake. Chill the frosted cupcakes for 20 minutes.
While the cupcakes are chilling, melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a microwave safe bowl, stopping to stir every 30 seconds until melted.
For easy dipping, pour the melted chocolate into a coffee mug or jar. Carefully and quickly, dip each chilled cupcake into the melted chocolate and chill again until set.
