Chocolate-covered Cherry Cupcakes

RecipeNut's Note:

These are made using Hershey's Milk Chocolate Candy Bars ; )

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 12.0 cupcakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1⁄3; cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1⁄3; cup butter , softened (5 Tbsp plus 1 tsp)
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup milk
• 2 (1 5⁄8; ounce) hershey milk chocolate candy bars , each broken in 12 squares
• 12 maraschino cherries , without stems,patted dry with paper towels

FROSTING

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• ¼ cup butter or ¼ cup margarine , softened
• 2 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Garnish

• 1 hershey milk chocolate candy bar , melted
• stemmed maraschino cherry , patted dry

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Line 12 regular-size (2 1/2-in. diameter) muffin cups with paper or foil liners.
3. Whisk flour and cocoa powder in a small bowl until blended; set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a mixer on high speed 2 minutes or until well blended.
5. Add egg and vanilla; beat 2 minutes or until fluffy.
6. Reduce mixer speed to low; beat in milk (batter will look curdled), then the flour mixture just until blended.
7. Spoon evenly into lined muffin cups Place a square of chocolate in center of each cupcake.
8. Top with a cherry and another square of chocolate.
9. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until a pick inserted off center comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes before removing from pan to rack to cool com-pletely (cupcakes will sink in center).
11. Frosting: Beat cream cheese, but-ter and cherry juice in a medium bowl with mixer on high speed until blend-ed and smooth.
12. Reduce speed to low; beat in confectioners' sugar.
13. Refriger-ate 15 minutes or until firm enough to spread.
14. Frost cupcakes.
15. To garnish: Top each cupcake with 1 or 2 cherries.
16. Melt chocolate bar and scrape into a ziptop bag.
17. Cut a tip off a corner of bag; drizzle chocolate over half or all the cupcakes.
18. Cover and refrigerate until serving or up to 1 day.

Reviews

[Karen=^..^=]

These were a huge hit! They look gorgeous and they are pretty easy to make. Hubby and kids raved over these. I followed the recipe exact except I did not have cherries with stems, so I decorated the tops with stemless ones :) These would be fabulous at a party or shower. A couple suggestions if you make these: watch carefully, because I left mine in for 18 minutes and they probably should have come out a bit sooner. Also, the frosting recipe makes A LOT! I think I probably could have cut it in half. Our cupcakes had about 3/4 of an inch of frosting on them and I still had extra frosting. Thanks for posting this, RecipeNut!

[CherryRed]

So good! I changed the recipe a little... used a boxed devil's food cake mix because I was short on time, and omitted the drizzled chocolate over the top because I didn't think it needed it. They came out really pretty and tasted great. Thanks!

[CCelia]

This was a really good recipe! I made 1/2 of the batter into cupcakes, and made the other half into a mini tub-cake with chocolate and cherries in the middle. I took a picture just for fun. Thanks for the recipe!!:-)