chocolate covered strawberries

Carrot Patch Cupcakes

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Ruthanne

Delicious strawberry “carrots” buried in Oreo buttercream frosting- a perfect cupcake for Easter!

I saw these adorable strawberry carrots online the other day, and imagined them buried in the top of cupcakes for Easter. Ah- soooo fun! Plus a strawberry and chocolate combo is always a winner in my book! These are easy, fun and a perfect way to add carrots to your cupcakes- without actually using carrots 🙂

Here is how we made these cute little treats: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS:

One boxed cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs to make according to package)
One package of Oreo Thins, crushed into crumbs
2 sticks (one cup) of salted butter at room temperature
2 sticks (one cup) of unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of cocoa powder
24 small strawberries
1 package of Wilton’s Candy Melts in orange

DIRECTIONS:

Wash and thoroughly dry 24 strawberries.
Make carrots by melting Candy Melts in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth.
Lay parchment paper or wax paper on countertop.
Grasping a strawberry by its stem and leaves, dip it into candy melts, spooning melts as close to stem as possible.
Set covered strawberry on paper to harden.
Once all berries are covered, spoon remaining melts into a zip-top bag and seal. Clip a corner and drizzle lines over the top.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Prepare cake mix as directed and divide evenly into 24 cupcake liners in tins.
Bake according to package and cool completely.
Make frosting by adding butters, powdered sugar and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and beating on high until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
Add cocoa powder to frosting and beat on high until well- combined.
Use a cookie scoop, or ice cream scoop to place a scoop of frosting on top of each cupcake.
Press this into a bowl of Oreo crumbs, turning the cupcake to make sure all edges are covered.

Press a strawberry “carrot” into the center of each cupcake and spoon a few remaining Oreo crumbs over the bottom of the carrot, to cover it further.

ENJOY!!!!

My thoughts: These are delicious little cupcakes! I really love this chocolate buttercream recipe- plus they are so cute! Note that chocolate covered strawberries only stay fresh for a couple of days before they start to get a little soggy/sticky. These last a little longer because they still have their stems attached- but don’t make these cupcakes WAY in advance. I hope you get a chance to try these!!! Enjoy! ~r

Other Easter treats you might like (click on a photo to see the recipe):

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Posted in Cupcakes and tagged carrot cupcakes, chocolate buttercream, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate Oreo cupcakes, cupcakes, easter cupcakes, Garden cupcakes, Oreo buttercream, Oreo dirt cupcakes, Oreo dirt cupcakes with carrots, Spring cupcakes, strawberry carrots, strawberry decorated like carrots. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Roll!

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Ruthanne

This strawberry cake rolled with vanilla buttercream and dark chocolate ganache is not only a pretty Valentines Day treat, but such a yummy one! Plus, it looks A LOT harder to make than it really is!

February 1st. How can the first month of this year be gone already? I had already written a post for for this week when I looked at the calendar and thought, oh my- it’s time for a Valentine’s dessert! I had an unexpected day off of work this week and decided to experiment with turning an ordinary cake mix into a cake roll. I absolutely loved the results! Cake rolls will always be a little fussier than plain old cakes, but look at how cute it is…! If you’ve never made a cake roll, I will try to explain it as we go. I have a few pictures, but if you want a few more click here for my pumpkin roll recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

One boxed strawberry cake mix (I used Pillsbury this time)
Water, oil and eggs (we will adjust the amounts from the box just a bit!)
1/2c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. dark chocolate chips
2 sticks (8 oz) butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 T. clear vanilla flavoring.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
Make boxed cake mix, but add just a little less oil and water. The Pillsbury mix called for 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of oil. I used 3/4 c. water and 1/4 c. oil instead. I used the same # of eggs (3)
Cover the bottom of a standard jellyroll pan (mine is about 12″ by 17″, and about 1″ deep) with waxed paper- allowing the paper to extend just a bit over each end.
Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Pour cake batter into pan and gently spread it out to cover the entire bottom in a thin, but even layer of cake.
Bake at 350F degrees for 15-20 minutes- checking often to make sure it isn’t browning too much.
Remove pan from oven, sprinkle a clean kitchen towel with powdered sugar, lay it powder side down on the top of the cake and holding the towel in place, flip the pan over onto a flat surface. You will have your powdered towel, the cake on top and wax paper on top of the cake.
Peel the wax paper off and gently roll the cake up in the towel, rolling from one short end to the other- keep the towel on the bottom and wrap it up with the cake.
Refrigerate for one hour.
While this is in the fridge, make your ganache and butter cream.
For the ganache: heat 1/2 c. of whipping cream in a medium saucepan until it starts to bubble around the edges. Turn off the heat. Add the dark chocolate chips and cover for 5-10 minutes. Stir until smooth and creamy.
For the buttercream: Place (softened) butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until very fluffy and creamy.
After chilling for one hour, remove cake roll from fridge and gently unroll on a flat surface.
Gently and evenly spread ganache over entire surface of the cake roll.
Gently and evenly spread the buttercream over the ganache. This part was a little tricky- I wanted to make sure I didn’t mix the two layers, so I scooped the buttercream in little bits all over the top and then spread it a little at a time.

Gently roll the cake back up, leaving the towel behind. Carefully lift it on to a large plate and refrigerate it until the buttercream and ganache harden up.

The 1st time I made this it rolled beautifully and I just sprinkled it with powdered sugar….then when I made it for taking photos it cracked as I rolled. This sometimes happens with cake rolls and there’s an easy fix: make another batch of ganache and pour it right over the top! I think I actually liked it better this way! You can’t even tell it cracked, see:

When it is chilled, slice it and serve it with whipped cream and maybe even some chocolate covered strawberries? So yummy!!!!

My thoughts: I really had fun making this dessert. There’s just something about the pink cake and all that gooey chocolate that makes me smile! I hope this cake brings a smile to the faces of all the ones you love this Valentine’s Day! Enjoy!!! ~r