Chocolate Angel Food Cupcakes

Statistics show that women say a lot more words than their male counterparts every single day.  (I suspect that the statistic is true most days in this house.)  However, there are a FEW things that I have NEVER said.

1.  I wish I was just a little bit shorter.
2.  I love the sounds that you make when you eat popcorn.
3.  Can you add some more capers to that?
4.  Clutter makes our house feel homey. 
5.  There are too many vegetables on my pizza.
6.  It's perfectly acceptable to use poor grammar on facebook.
7.  This (insert anything) is too chocolatey.
8.  I don't have anything to be grateful for. 
9.  I'm not worried about anything.
10.  No thank you.  I don't like chocolate and strawberries. 

It was harder than I thought it would be to generate a list of sentences that I have never uttered.  (I guess I really do say a lot of words every day.)  I found it really interesting how much my list of "never spoken words" reveled about myself and my personality. 

One thing I know for sure though, I don't very often turn away chocolate OR strawberries.  I love them both and when they are combined - it's irresistible.  While I was making a batch of angel food cupcakes a couple of weeks ago, the idea for chocolate angel food cupcakes hit me like a lightening rod.  I'm sure that I'm not the first person to think of this idea but I'm still claiming it as a original idea.

This first time I create a new recipe is always a learning experience.  (It actually looks a whole lot more like a science experiment that a cooking lesson.)

I started by making a second batch of angel food cupcake batter and eliminating the lemon juice and zest and replacing it with a quarter cup of cocoa powder.  The result was a slightly dense - but delicious - chocolate angel food cupcake.  I modified the recipe and reduced the amount of flour to compensate for the addition of the dry cocoa powder and I got much better results. 

 

Chocolate Angel Food Cupcakes
3/4 cup cake flour                               1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 cup cocoa                                      1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups sugar                                  11/4 cups egg whites (about 8)
1/4 teaspoon salt                          
       
Combine flour, 1 c. sugar, cocoa and salt.

 
Beat egg whites on medium until foamy.

Add cream of tartar. Increase speed to high and beat until soft peaks.  Beat in 1/4 c. sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
 

Sift in 1/4 of flour and fold in.  Repeat 3 more times.

Scoop into greased muffin tins.

Bake cakes for 18 minutes.

Use a knife to separate cake from pan and put inside a cupcake liner.

Frost with whipped cream and garnish with a fresh strawberry.

 Enjoy.

Chocolate angel food cupcakes, fluffy whipped cream and fresh strawberries - YES, PLEASE!  I will eat one of these every single time that I make them.  Now that is something that I can be sure of. 

Ciao!