Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Anyone that likes to cook—and especially those that do it professionally—always have friends casually throw into conversation how you should cook for them sometime. I have these two friends—Aaron and Anna—that aren’t very subtle about their desires for my cooking. Their birthdays are only a few days apart, so last year they asked me make them a birthday cake to bring to their party. I was in the middle of culinary school at the time and wasn’t able to do it with my hectic schedule. Instead, I arrived straight from class with some leftover roasted broccoli that we had for dinner. It was eaten, but needless to say it wasn’t exactly what they wanted. This year I decided to deliver on their request. And deliver I did. Everyone loves chocolate. Everyone loves booze. Why not combine the two? It would probably be enough for me to just leave you with the title and the pictures, but you then might need to go make these for yourself one day.

Godiva Liqueur Dark Chocolate Cake:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark chocolate, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
• 2 tsps. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Cream together butter and sugar. A big stand mixer, such as one made by KitchenAid, would work great, but a hand mixer works just as well.
3. Mix in melted chocolate. (You can either melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in a microwave by stirring after 15 second intervals.) Incorporate the rest of the wet ingredients (eggs, milk, liqueur, and vanilla extract).
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, but not all at once. You can either slowly add them to the batter as the mixer is running, or add it in thirds and mixing between each addition. You want everything to be well combined, but you also don’t want to over mix the batter.
5. Place cupcake liners in the cupcake tin and fill with batter. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin and then transport to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 – 8 oz. package cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 Tbsps. Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Procedure:

1. With an electric mixer, combine butter and cream cheese. Add in liqueur and vanilla extract.
2. Slowly add in powdered sugar. (Going slowly helps keep it from flying all over you and your kitchen.) Plus, you may want to add more or less sugar depending on the desired level of sweetness.
3. Decorate! You can go the old school route by using a knife or spatula to spread it on. But if you want to get a little fancy then I encourage you to try your hand at piping. Of course a pastry bag is ideal for this, but a simple substitute is a large freezer bag. To pipe, fill the bag with the frosting, trying not to leave any air bubbles, and cut the tip to create a hole for the frosting to escape. Start on the outside and swirl into the middle to create the look pictured here. You could also work from the inside out to make something of a rose pattern. No matter what it looks like, it’ll be sure to taste delicious.