February Cupcake of the Month: Chocolate Angel Food Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting….

As you’ve guessed it by now- my absolute favorite cake is angel food cake.  I love the texture, flavor, and the fact that it’s a little bit healthier for you than other cakes.  One of my other favorite pairings is chocolate and strawberry.  There is something about this combination that just screams Valentine’s day– so I decided to combine these together.  Here you have a chocolate angel food cupcake with a strawberry mascarpone whipped frosting topped with some cute little hearts and xo’s for some extra love.  I’m so excited how these turn out– I’ve eaten three already because they are so addicting!! {Oops}  

Cupcakes:

Mostly Adopted from Cooking Classy (I’ve used this recipe so many times for these cupcakes- they turn out perfectly every time!)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse sugar until super fine, about 2 minutes (if you don’t have a food processor caster sugar should also work). In a mixing bowl, sift together half of the sugar, the cake flour, cocoa powder, and the salt.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together egg whites, water, vanilla extract and cream of tartar until well combined, about 2 minutes. Switch to a hand mixer and whip mixture on medium speed while slowly adding remaining sugar to mixture, until medium peaks form. Sift just enough of the flour mixture in to evenly dust the top of the egg white mixture and using a spatula gently fold flour layer into egg white mixture and continue this process until all of the flour mixture has been incorporated (I did this in probably 12 batches).
• Divide batter among paper lined muffin cups, filling each cup nearly full. Bake in preheated oven 18 – 20 minutes until golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean