White Chocolate Cupcakes

Thursdays seem to be the day of the week when I crave for a lil cupcake. In the past 4 weeks I have been baking cupcakes on Thursdays...what can I say, a cupcake as a Thursday afternoon snack is delicious and having it on a Friday morning as breakfast is even better! What better way to kick off Friday!

And since X'mas is around the corner, I decided to stock up on some white chocolate. I dunno why but white chocolate always reminds me of X'mas. In fact, that's probably the only time of the year when I opt for white over dark chocolate. So it is white chocolate cupcakes topped with a lovely light pink strawberry buttercream frosting.

I must say I can't really taste the white chocolate in the cupcake...it tastes kinda like a normal yellow butter cupcake. But still, it's yummy and very sweet with the frosting. If you like a heavier white chocolate flava, you could have a white chocolate buttercream frosting. As you will see in the recipe for the frosting below, instead of using strawberry jam, you mix in 4 oz of melted white chocolate. I wish I did that instead actually. BOO.

Here's what you'll need:

White chocolate cupcake:

- 4 oz white chocolate

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/3 cup unsalted butter

- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 cup milk

Strawberry buttercream frosting:

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter

- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 teaspoons strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tray with paper liners.

2. White chocolate cupcakes: Place the chopped white chocolate in a bowl and melt it in a microwave. Set it aside.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

6. Add in the white chocolate and vanilla extract, mix well.

7. Add the flour mixture alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture (flour - milk - flour - milk - flour).

8. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full.

9. Bake for 25 - 28 mins, until the top is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before frosting.

10. Strawberry buttercream frosting: Cream the butter until smooth.

11. Add in the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time and mix well after each addition.

12. Mix in the vanilla extract and beat on high speed for 4 mins.

13. Beat in the strawberry jam for another 1 min.

14. Frost the cooled cupcakes.

With a couple of cupcakes in me, I'm ready for the weekend. The cold cold cold weekend. It's gonna be icy and raining and snowing...yikes. Thinking about the weekend makes me wanna reach out for another cupcake.