Red Wine Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosing + Dark Chocolate Garnishes 10/07

Being the health nut and gym rat that I am (yes I realize I bake cupcakes once a week--it's not like I eat the whole batch!), I know my antioxidants. So I call this my antioxidant cupcake--red wine and dark chocolate. I am not an addict of either, but I liked the combination put in a cupcake. To be honest, the Red Wine cupcake is like red wine and chocolate (there is quite a bit of cocoa powder here), with your first taste being a mild chocolate flavor and ending with the red wine taste. The red wine is much more obvious when the cupcakes are cold. The cream cheese is a nice, mellow, smooth option for a frosting, and creamier than vanilla frosting (which might work too though--or chocolate). Plus I discovered my own combination of the perfect-for-me cream cheese frosting after looking at the differences between three recipes. It's a small victory. I'll take it. And now that I have gotten the hang of actually making the darn things, I can try my hand at decorating them (I watched some Cake Challenge on cable and became inspired). Can't wait til Halloween when I can throw some candy corn pumpkins on top!!