Surprise Red Cupcakes Recipe

Surprise Red Cupcakes Recipe photo by Taste of Home

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Catch your honey red-handed this Valentine's Day with a batch of Betty Claycomb's confections. “Our family loves these filled cupcakes,” she adds from Alverton, Pennsylvania. “They disappear in a day.”

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Surprise Red Cupcakes Recipe

Prep: 1 hour Bake: 20 min. + cooling

Yield: 24 Servings

60 20 80

Ingredients

2 cups sugar, divided
3 tablespoons plus 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup shortening, divided
2 eggs
1 bottle (1 ounce) red food coloring
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
FROSTING:
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup plus 1 to 3 teaspoons evaporated milk, divided
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In a heavy saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons flour and milk until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; cool.
In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup shortening and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the food coloring, vinegar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Combine the cocoa, baking soda and remaining flour; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick insert near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
In a small bowl, beat butter and remaining shortening until smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, cooled sugar mixture and remaining vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Insert a large round tip into a pastry or plastic bag; fill with filling. Insert the tip halfway into the center of each cupcake and fill with a small amount of filling.
For frosting, in a heavy saucepan, melt chips with 1/3 cup evaporated milk over low heat; stir until smooth. Remove from the heat. Beat in confectioners' sugar. Add enough remaining milk to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes. Yield: 2 dozen.

Nutritional Facts 1 serving (1 each) equals 288 calories, 14 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 30 mg cholesterol, 114 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.

Originally published as Surprise Red Cupcakes in Country Woman January/February 2007, p34