Chocolate Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Place paper liners in 24 regular sized cupcake tins. Set aside.

2. With a mixer, whip your 2 whole eggs and 10.5 ounces of sugar until you’ve reached the ribbon stage—light yellow in color and thickened up.

3. While this is happening, sift together cake flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together your vegetable oil, buttermilk and chilled coffee.

4. When you’ve reached ribbon stage, stop mixer and scrape down bowl. Turning back on to low, alternately mix in the wet ingredients and the sifted dry ingredients. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl every so often. Once all ingredients have been added, mix together once more. Try not to over mix as this will cause a dense cake. Your batter will be runny!! Don’t worry, it will bake up perfectly.

5. Immediately pour batter evenly into the 24 cupcake tins (filling up 1/2-3/4 of the way) and bake until cake bounces back when touched in middle and a toothpick comes out clean. Check after 15 minutes. Then bake for additional 5 minute intervals, checking after each interval, until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Remove from the oven and let cupcakes cool on a wire rack until room temperature.

For the strawberry buttercream frosting:

1. First make your strawberry puree by combining the puree with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Set aside. Over a pot of simmering water, create a double boiler with your KitchenAid mixer bowl on the top. Whisk egg whites and 1 cup sugar into the mixing bowl and set over the pot of simmering water. Continually whisk over simmering water until sugar dissolves when rubbed between fingertips. This will take about 5 minutes.

3. Then remove the bowl from the top of the simmering pot and put it into your mixer. With the whisk attachment, whisk the mixture until egg white form stiff peaks and are completely cool. This will take quite a while, 15 minutes or so. Just keep touching the bottom of your mixer bowl until you cannot feel heat whatsoever.

4. One square at a time, add butter while mixer is continually whisking the egg white/sugar mix. Continue to do this until all butter is incorporated. Add vanilla extract, pinch of salt, and vanilla bean seeds. If it looks loose don’t worry, it will come together. If you’d like to help it along, rub ice or ice packs underneath the mixing bowl while it’s going to help cool down the buttercream with butter.

5. Lastly add your fresh strawberry puree. Mix until fully incorporated. Fit a pastry bag with large star attachment (like an Ateco 826 or Magic Tip 8ST) and fill the bag with the buttercream.

* If using the frosting that day, keep it at room temperature. If using it later you can can refrigerate it up to 3 days and freeze up to a month. Bring back to room temperature and beat with a paddle attachment before piping.

All together now!

Simply take a chocolate cupcake and pipe on your fresh strawberry buttercream!