Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Santa Hats

Don’t these look cute?  I saw a picture of something similar to these the other week that were made from what looked like chocolate brownie that had been cut into circular shapes before being topped with the strawberries – too much fuss for me!  I decided to create mine using mini chocolate cupcakes instead.  The cupcake recipe I’ve used is delicious – it has a nice fudgy taste and goes so super well with the frosting and strawberries.  They are super easy to make and I think I’m going to have to re-use this recipe again :)
I’ve put the recipe for the mini muffins first, followed by the frosting and decoration recipe so you don’t get confused with a long list of ingredients.

Makes about 36

Mini Chocolate Muffins:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder (optional)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk (low fat is ok)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Line 36 mini muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa power, instant coffee powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and vinegar.  Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Decoration:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

36 strawberries, leaves removed

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low.  Gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Pipe the frosting mixture into a circle on the top of each mini muffin.  Place a strawberry in the centre of each frosting circle.  Pipe a small ball of frosting onto the top of each strawberry as the pom-pom for the Santa hat.