Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Almond Mascarpone Frosting

Today is my sweet Mom's Birthday. She's 50-something years young, and as spritey and gorgeous as ever! So much of what I've learned in the kitchen is from watching her prepare recipe after recipe, year after year. She's fearless, and can make a mean pan of never-fail brownies.

We celebrated this past Saturday as a family at one of our favorite restaurants. Endless soup and salad? It was a match made in heaven.

Each year for her birthday, I try to make her a special dessert. One year, it was a three-layered white-fondant covered strawberry cake with fondant sunflowers. It was my very first time with fondant, and she was a really good sport about it. The next year, I made this Brown Sugar Pumpkin Cheesecake - and it was freaky-delicious. Another year, I made the beast. It was probably my favorite cake I've ever made, but MAN it was nuts. Martha Stewart's Ultimate Coconut Cake was 4 separate recipes to tackle. It required a lot of effort, and was well worth every minute (and quite the load of butter). This year, I wanted to go with something very simple, yet elegant (we were going to be full to the brim with soup and salad, after all, by the time dessert would come around.)

I decided on decadent white and black cupcakes with gold liners. The black was my traditional dark chocolate cupcake. The white was something new. I wanted to balance out the heavy, dense, dark chocolate with something light and dreamy. Mascarpone was the perfect ingredient for frosting, and added a special touch of elegance to these cupcakes. I switched up a few ingredients on the recipe: I decided almond, for this cupcake, was a better fit than vanilla. Also, I thought the frosting needed a bit more sweetness, so I added powdered sugar. Still, the frosting was very light, and countered wonderfully with the dark intense flavors on bottom.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

For the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes recipe, click here on a previous post.

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Almond Mascarpone Frosting 

Ingredients:
16oz mascarpone cheese
1 C heavy whipping cream
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 t almond extract (add more after tasting)
1/4 C powdered sugar

Method:
1. In a bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add mascarpone, cream, granulated sugar, almond extract and powdered sugar.
2. Start mixing on low, and slowly increase speed to medium-high. Do not overmix. Beat until soft peaks begin to form.
3. Fill piping bags with desired tip, and pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from: Life {Made} Simple's recipe featured on Style Me Pretty