This weather is seriously killing me, I was not done with summer yet. However you cannot change the seasons or the weather, but you can change your state of mind. With all the power of my mind I try to hold on to the summer feelings with these wonderful Chocolate Strawberry Surprise Cupcakes. I did them a while back with fresh strawberries from the farmer’s market but haven’t managed to put down the recipe yet because I’ve lost the post it where I noted the ingredients. The cupcake is my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, that you can use as a base for almost any topping. I added a little strawberry surprise inside the center of the cupcakes before adding the frosting. All eaters were totally delighted, but you better try yourself!

For the cupcakes:

• 24 of your or my favourite chocolate cupcakes

For the surprise:

• 24 strawberries (matching the number of your cupcakes)
• 200 g dark chocolate, melted
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water or in the microwave in short intervals. Stir in the coconut oil and let cool sown slightly. Cover the strawberries with the chocolate and let them dry on a sheet of lightly greased parchment paper or tin foil.

For the frosting:

• 500 g strawberries
• 125 g butter at room temperature
• 200 g cream cheese
• 50 g confectioners sugar

First puree the strawberries and check their sweetness. As you can see by the list of ingredients, this recipe relies on the natural sweetness of the strawberries. If they are a little sour, add one or two teaspoons of confectioners sugar to your puree.  Beat up cream cheese, butter and sifted confectioners sugar until they are really light and fluffy. Then add the strawberry puree tablespoon wise, whilst you keep beating. Send your frosting to chill in the fridge for some time while you prepare the assembly of the cupcake.

The cupcake assembly:

Core the cupcake with a cupcake corer or the back of a piping nozzle. Make sure your hole is big enough to fit in the cone end of your chocolate covered strawberries. Fill all cupcakes with a chocolate covered strawberry before you ice them with strawberry cream. When icing these little beauties make sure you hide the strawberry surprise carefully. Put them out of the fridge 10 minutes before serving. And when serving watch the smiley and surprised faces of the eaters. Enjoy and hold on to your summer feelings!