berry chocolate cupcakes for birthday bunnies!

so, tomorrow is my birthday and i'm off out for the day to Co. Wicklow to visit the Powerscourt Estate - one of my favourite places to go - there are fabulous gardens, a great foody shop and of course a lovely restaurant to eat at so there'll be no baking for me on my birthday.
just recently i met someone - becs who shares my birthday with me 3rd March...my first time to meet someone born on the same day as me...i like that and the great thing was that the first time we met we had this instant connection (and didn't know at the time that we shared a birthday!) so can you imagine after finally meeting someone who shares the same birthday as me, i leave the place where they are living and traverse half the planet to set up home somewhere else...typical. anyway, i wanted to make something for becs, to let her know that i'll be thinking about her on our b-day. so honey...these are for you!

i have tried making black forest before a long time ago and wanted to experiment with a different recipe this time. this was also a chocolate based recipe (with a small addition of almond meal - which i didn't taste at all in the final result) and this time i added frozen mixed berried (as opposed to last time just plain black cherries) which consisted of black cherries, blackberries and black currants. nice and tangy...they hadn't been preserved in syrup and so weren't sweet. it created a nice balance with the sweetness of the chocolate. the recipe was pretty easy to follow however, when i added the frozen berried, the batter started getting really cold and clumpy...yikes...had to get them in the oven pronto!

smell in the oven was yummy-licious and they came out nicely shaped and looking good. i iced them with a cream cheese icing and smoothed over the top, decorating with sprinkles and a cherry for the true black forest 'look'.

the taste was very good. you enjoyed a mouthful of sweet, moist chocolate as well as soft, tangy berries, then rounded off with the creaminess of the cream cheese icing...what a taste explosion in the mouth...very good! my husband has been asking me to make these for ages so he tucked into a couple too. Happy Birthday to me and becs!