Chocoholic Cupcakes

I recently served these cupcakes at a baby shower. The plan was to do an elegant, classy shower on a budget. I love baking, instead of ordering cupcakes from a fancy bakery, I planned to make my own cupcakes from scratch. The week before the shower was CRAZY for me, so unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything from scratch. So I had to think fast and come up with something that would be just as tasty without caving into buying expensive cupcakes at a bakery. So I turned to the trusty boxed cake mix and added an ingredient to make it extra special. I also made a rich and delectable chocolate frosting. They turned out so good and moist!! Here is how I did it...


Cupcakes

• 1 box of Devil's Food cake mix, preferably Duncan Hines
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325. Line standard muffin tins with cupcake liners. Prepare cupcake Mix the first 4 ingredients together with a stand or hand mixer. Mix for about 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly amongst the lined cups using an ice cream scoop. Using an ice cream scoop reduces clean up and ensures that each cupcake is the same size. Fill them about 2/3's of the way up. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of chocolate chips on top of the batter of each cupcake. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the muffin tins and cool on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. This makes 24 cupcakes.

For a healthier option, substitute the vegetable oil with 1/3 cup of unsweetened apple sauce and only use 1 cup of water. This is noted on the back of the cake mix box.

Chocolate Icing

• 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup of whole milk
• 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

In a large bowl, sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder together. In another large bowl, add 1 cup of the sifted mixture, the butter, and a tablespoon of milk. Using a hand mixer or whisk, mix the ingredients together. It will be lumpy at first, but keep the faith! Repeat that step for another 3-4 times until you reach the desired consistency.

Icing the Cupcakes

Icing is MESSY, so I have come up with a way to control some, not all, of the mess. After all, icing cupcakes is the best part! Place the corner of a large food storage bag in a large cup. Fold the tops of the bag over the cup. Using a spatula or large spoon, spoon the icing into the bag that is inside of the cup. Once all of the icing is in the bag, life the side of the bag out of the cup and seal the bag. Make sure that all of the icing is in a corner of the bag. Cut the corner of the bag. The size of the cut depends on how small or large you want your design on the cupcakes to be. I ice the cupcakes using a swirl pattern, but you can use any pattern you like.

If you don't want to use the freezer bag method, a butter knife or small icing spatula will work perfectly.