Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes

Oh, yes, you read correctly. Chocolate. Merlot. Cupcakes. WITH Chocolate. Merlot. Frosting.

Last week was my wonderful roommate’s birthday, and to celebrate I wanted to make something fun. We both love chocolate, and we both enjoy wine. And cupcakes? Well, there’s just no substitute! So I figured that this was the perfect dessert to make for her! And I really like the touch the decorative cupcake liners add to the cupcakes, don’t you?

Birthdays are so enjoyable to me because I am thoroughly fond of making food that has a special meaning. Holidays, for example, are really fun, and with birthdays, personalizing a cake or making something that you know the birthday person loves is so exciting and unique! If you like Merlot and chocolate, I think you will enjoy these as well!

According to the original recipe, these cupcakes were suppose to be a lot darker so don’t know what happened, but they still tasted amazing. And with a hint of spice from the nutmeg and cinnamon, these cupcakes were definitely one of a kind. Also, the cupcakes are nice and boozy (which we liked) but if you don’t care for a stronger wine flavor, I suggest you either make plain chocolate cupcakes with the Merlot frosting or the Merlot cupcakes with plain chocolate frosting. If anyone attempts to make them, please let me know how they turned out!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes Recipe (via Yuri from Chef Pandita)

• 3/4 Cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 Cups sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup Merlot
• 2 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 Ounces dark chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with cupcake baking cups*. Cream the butter and sugar together, then mix in the eggs one at a time until everything is incorporated. Then add the Merlot. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients together and then slowly add to the butter mixture. Mix in the melted chocolate. Pour batter into the cups, filling them about 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

*I actually only had enough batter to make 21 cupcakes instead of the 24.

Chocolate Merlot Frosting** (via Moms Who Need Wine)

• 2 3/4 Cups confectioners sugar
• 6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 5 Tablespoons Merlot wine
• Optional: White cupcake pearls

Cream butter and slowly add the confectioners sugar. Then add the cocoa powder alternating one tablespoon at a time with the Merlot. Incorporate until the mixture is nice and fluffy. Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled, and then using a frosting tip and piping bag, pipe frosting onto the cupcakes. Then apply the white pearls directly on the frosting as decoration.

**I made 1.5x this recipe in order to have enough frosting for all the cupcakes, but it all depends on how much frosting you want on each individual cupcake!