Blackberry Champagne Cupcakes

This is the first post in the series of posts that make GREAT Valentine's Day or romantic desserts. I know my boyfriend just revealed that he doesn't love cupcakes (WHAT HORROR), but I still decided to make these anyways.

Instead of making these for a romantic reason, I made them for a friend's party. I asked her what she wanted and she had mentioned raspberries and champagne. Although it's not the best thing to bake with, I thought I would give it a try. I didn't have fresh raspberries, but I did have fresh blackberries. It's not the same, but it's still amazing! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL!!!

The cupcakes turned out surprisingly very well. Everyone really enjoyed them. I ran into some difficulties with the frosting, but since everyone was drinking, no one noticed! The cupcake was moist, even though I thought it would be quite dense and dry. Delicious new addition to my arsenal. Alcoholic cupcakes are great for birthdays!

Recipe (adapted from Love Cupcake):
Makes about 24 cupcakes
Soaked Blackberries:
1 1/2 cup champagne
2 containers of blackberries (about 70 of them)


1. Place the blackberries in the champagne in a container overnight, or at least 4 hours.


Cupcakes: 
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup champagne (from soaking the blackberries)


1. Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a mixer cream butter and sugar until well mixed and airy. Add eggs one at a time making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Slowly add in flour mixture. Stir in vanilla and champagne.
3. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full. Insert one blackberry into each cupcake. Cover with enough batter to cover the berry. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.


Champagne Frosting:
1 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/8 cup champagne


Cream butter until smooth. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar. Mixture will bery thick, keep adding champagne to get the consistency you want. Frost cupcakes and top with a blackberry (soaked ones).

Fruits of the Forest Pie

I know that I had promised to bake more..and now that I'm moving out of my apartment I am! I had 2 frozen pie crusts and I thought that yesterday was perfect for a pie. 

I had tried to just use the other pie crust as the top crust, but it fell apart on me, so I decided to be a little creative instead. I cut out (using cookie cutters) hearts and made the top crust that way. This way, there were vent holes where the pie could do its thing. 

It was so delicious. We couldn't even stop and get a picture of its inside. The many many different berries made it a great combination. I feel like you could still taste all of them even though they were mixed together. It was still warm about 2 hours later when we finally dug into it and it was gone in 2 minutes. 

Fruits of Forest Pie (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

1 double crust pie crust
2 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces
1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberry
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Ease bottom crust in 9-inch pie pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir in berries. Gently toss berries until coated. Transfer berry mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate.
Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie plate. Place top crust on filling and fold edge under bottom pastry. Flute edge as desired.  Prick with fork for steam vents. ( I made the top crust by cutting some pie dough into shapes of hearts and decoratively placed them on the pie) 
Bake for 50 minutes, or until top is golden filling is bubbling. Cool on wire rack.