Chocolate-Cherry Pie cupcakes

I made these about two weeks ago for my own birthday.  We won't talk about how old I am.  Instead let's focus on the cake

 See? A much better topic of conversation.  To start, use any chocolate cake recipe you happen to have a devotion to.  Personally, I use this one, adapted from the Food and Wine Magazine Cookbook 2009. It makes a dozen.  I usually triple:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
Mix together in a large bowl.  Then on the stove over very low heat, melt:
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/4 vegetable oil
1/2 cup black coffee
Add that to the dry ingredients.  Then beat in:
1/4 cup of buttermilk
1 large egg
vanilla extract

In addition, you will need: A can or jar of cherry pie filling, 2 sticks of salted butter (softened), a box of confectioner's sugar, some tart cherry juice (optional) and a jar of cherry preserves (or thawed frozen cherries)

Pour the cake batter into lined muffin tins, and drop some cherry pie filling into the center, like so (a good teaspoon should do):

Bake at 350 until they are done, about 20 minutes.  Then, make the frosting:
Beat the softened butter until it's whippy, then add confectioner's sugar in batches until its the texture/sweetness you want (I wound up using about 3/4 of a box)
Add 4 tablespoons of the cherry juice, if you're using it. 
Beat in cherry preserves or frozen cherries (with the juice) until it's cherry-ish enough for you.  (I used almost all of the pint jar of preserves)

To decorate, plop a spoon full of frosting in the center of each cupcake

 Then, using a pastry bag and whatever tip you would like (I went with a star shaped tip, in a sandwich baggie with a hole cut in the corner because I was out of pastry bags. And it's cheaper) pipe in a circle from the outside in.  This will get you the nice soft-serve ice cream effect seen in the first picture.