chocolate-dipped [real] strawberry cupcakes

so i guess wednesday is my new do something new in the kitchen day. last week, i got home super late but still made a dinner out of some beet greens. today, i skipped lunch, made my 3 PM appointment at a job site only 15 miles from our place, and got to charge my travel home back to the client since otherwise i would have charged them travel back to the office. whee! so i got home WAY early, put in my last 30 minutes of work, and then wandered off to the grocery store as i had a fun project in mind.

the bear and LOVE strawberries, and they're starting to taste pretty sweet. they smell dang good even when walking by them in the sterile, cold supermarket. i saw this on justJENN's recipe blog when she posted it and have wanted to try it ever since. actually, i want to try all of her cupcake recipes. sooner rather than later.

they turned out quite nicely. see?

baked and cooling.
strawberry bits poking out. cute.

i could have eaten these without any frosting, but i had a fun idea for topping 'em. more on the below later.

um yeah, that spoon's from my hot boba drink from cha for tea.
yes, i am that asian. i brought it home instead of throwing it out.
hey! it's very sturdy plastic, and it's so cute.
and perfect for mixing drinks, too.
in the background, you can also see me lame-o attempt at trying to drizzle the glaze prettily on top. (didn't work. tried something else easier.)

i love how justJENN stuck strawberry pocky in hers to hint at the strawberry insides below her chocolate frosting, but we don't store pocky in this household. i eat them all as soon as they arrive. instead, i took inspiration from one of the bear's and my mutually favorite sweets.

the first and most special for the bear.
finally, i do something good wife-ish.

i've mentioned before that i'm not a huge frosting fan. unless it's cream cheese. then it's game over. i decided to attempt a glaze instead and found this one, which ends up less shiny than in the photos below and more like the chocolate glaze on your chocolate bar donut when completely cool.

mmmm...drippy. chocolatey.
and yeah, a bit messy. oh well.
you've heard of cheese paper, from carl's, jr. fame, no?
i present...chocolate paper.

so shiny you can see me in it if you look hard enough.

i couldn't wait for the glaze to set before trying one.
glaze on fresh strawberry topper was a bit too drippy.
still yummy.

i should have just put wax paper instead of a cookie sheet under the cooling rack to catch the drippings.
duh.

cupcake notes:

• +/- 12 medium to large strawberries made 1-1/2 cups.
• 23 minutes in my oven (i know this doesn't hlep you).

glaze notes:

• 3 tablespoons is not enough milk.
• added milk 1 teaspoon at a time until i got the desired consistency. left it while cupcakes were cooling, and then it hardened too much.
• when adding milk again, use a teaspoon instead of just trying to pour it straight so as to avoid FLOODING the dang glaze next time. oops.
• let sit awhile and it'll harden again if too much milk is added. try mixing to get more pliable/pourable if too hard, before adding milk.