Gluten-Free Mini Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.

I made these delicious cupcakes for a small Oscar Party last weekend. They were so tasty I thought I would share the recipe. I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips, and the chocolate taste is heavenly. I swear they are better than cupcakes made with flour. This is definitely going to be my new go to cupcake recipe.

I found the recipe here. However, I had major problems with the frosting recipe. I ended up using A LOT more powdered sugar than it called for. I also had to make a second batch of the frosting. Here is the way I made them.

Ingredients:

• 24 maraschino cherries
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup) I recommend using Ghirardelli 
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder plus more for garnish
• 1 ½ tablespoons maraschino cherry liquid
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar  - I may have even used a little more. 

STEP 1: 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

 STEP 2: 

Cut the cherries in half and dab them dry. 

STEP 3:

Melt chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler if you have one. I used one bigger pot filled with boiling water and had the smaller pan with chocolate and butter resting inside. Stir until it's well mixed and glossy. 

STEP 4: 

While you let the chocolate/butter mixture cool a little, line the pan with 24 mini cupcake cups. 

STEP 5: 

Whisk together chocolate/butter mixture, eggs, sugar, salt, cocoa powder and cherry liquid. 

STEP 6:

Spoon the batter half way into each cup, place a cherry half in each cup and spoon more batter on top of it. Almost fill the cups.

STEP 7:

Bake for 20 minutes. Stick a toothpick in - when the toothpick comes out clean, they are done.

STEP 8:

Beat heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla. If frosting is still watery add more powered sugar until it is your desired thickness. I also ended up whipping out my hand held beater to get it as thick as I could.

STEP 9: 

After cupcakes have cooled, top with whipped cream frosting using a frosting bag. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and top with a cherry. Since I made mine for an Oscar Party, I added some edible gold stars to make them a little more festive.

STEP 10:

Enjoy!