Chocolate cupcakes with Whisky Chocolate Cream, Pink Elderflower Frosting and chocolate decorations

Ah yes... Valentine's Day is coming and for all you love birds out there, I'm sure you're wondering what you can do on a budget to surprise your loved one.

Now I'm not usually someone who does much for Valentine's Day but I have had many people asking what they can do to impress their significant other. The cupcakes I made was a combination of three recipes put together using the best elements for each part. The chocolate decorations you see especially the hearts can be bought of shelves from supermarkets to make your life easier. 

So here's the recipe:

Cake ingredients:

225g caster sugar

100g butter - very soft

300g self-raising flour

15g (1 1/2 tsp) cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

100g melted dark chocolate

250ml whole milk

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Whisky Chocolate Cream ingredients:

300g cream cheese

294ml double cream

100g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp or more whisky

200g melted dark chocolate

Pink Elderflower frosting:

100g cream cheese

100g double cream

1 tbsp elderflower syrup / cordial

2 tbsp honey

2 squirts of red food colouring. 

Method:

1. Crank up your oven to 180 Celsius and line your cupcake trays with cupcake cups. Put aside.
2. Sift the dry cake ingredients together and then beat the sugar and butter together until light and creamy. In the meantime mix the red wine vinegar with the whole milk and set aside. It will curdle a little bit but don't worry. 
3. Add in eggs to the butter sugar mixture one at a time before adding half the flour and half the milk portions. Continue beating until well mixed before adding in the remaining flour and milk.
4. Finally, add in the melted chocolate and mix well.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop equal portions into the cupcake cups and pop them into the over for no longer than 15 minutes or when pricked with a toothpick, it comes out clean. Repeat the process until batter finishes.
6. Whilst waiting for the cupcakes to bake, make your chocolate cream. Mix together all the ingredients until firm peaks start forming. Set aside. The same goes with the pink elderflower frosting. 
7. Once your cupcakes have fully rested and are cooled down, prepare your piping bag with what ever nozzles you feel like using. A bigger one for the whisky and chocolate cream while a smaller one for the pink elderflower frosting. Pipe the whisky chocolate cream first before the pink elderflower frosting. Then finally decorate it with chocolate hearts or chocolate fingers whichever you fancy. If you fancy more booze, then buy chocolate hearts with alcohol centres. Add a finishing touch with a raspberry, blueberry or half a strawberry. 
8. Additionally you can prick your cupcakes before piping the cream with toothpicks and spoon over more whisky to soak the cupcakes.

And there you have it! For the non-bakers, you can do this by simply buying pre-baked plain chocolate cupcakes, whip up the cream yourself, and decorate away! No nozzles or piping bag? Don't worry, use a zip log bag, cut a bit of the edge away to allow air to escape as well as allow the cream to go through. 

Other suggestions for Valentine's Day are:

Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and hand piped chocolate decorations

Red Wine Cupcakes with Brandy and Chocolate Liquour Frosting with Raspberries and Chocolate Finger Decorations

I bet you your date will be impressed and all loved up!

A savoury attempt coming soon!

The Innovative Baker