Chocolate Cupcakes

One of the food blogs I follow is My Baking Addiction. The other day she posted about a chocolate cake with espresso buttercream frosting. I am not big on coffee-flavored anything, but the chocolate cake I can totally get down with. And I've been a bit timid to make cakes from scratch (usually I use a box.. I know, totally against my from scratch mindset, but you gotta do what you gotta do!). So I took the plunge and decided to make the chocolate cake part, but in cupcakes for my work buddies.

Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup very hot water

First, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder & soda, and salt with a mixer using the whisk attachment. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix into the dry ingredients, making sure to scrape down the edges of the bowl. When I made this, it didn't get completely mixed the first time. Add in the hot water (I just used water from my tap--it gets super hot). The batter will be really runny, a lot runnier than the batter that comes from the box mix. At first, I thought I did it wrong, but it's supposed to be like that!

I made cupcakes, and used a ladle to scoop the batter in. I filled them probably a little too full, because the cupcakes came out super round. Usually I use a large ice cream scooper to fill my cupcakes, but the batter was just too runny to do that, so I had to use a ladle instead. Also, I used silicon cupcake liners today, sprayed with baking Pam (you can never be too sure about them sticking!), but you can use paper too.

Bake at 375F for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

I made a quick butter cream for frosting.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened (remember-unsalted!)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

Mix the butter until it's smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients, mix until creamy.

You can be pretty generous frosting your cupcakes, since this makes a lot of frosting. You can add some food coloring or sprinkles to make your cupcakes a little prettier. But these are delicious plain without any decorations too!

Enjoy!