Friday, September 18, 2009

Chocolate Cupcakes

cupcakechocolate (2)

There's something about sprinkles that gets me excited every time. Even when they aren't particularly yummy and annoying to have beads of sugar stuck between my teeth, I will gladly reach for that sprinkly donut. When my chocolate cupcakes looked a little too plain, I decided to dress them up a little. To make them a teeny bit fancier, I topped them with a sunflower left from cake decorating. I went with the always reliable and easy Hershey's chocolate cake recipe and frosting.

cupcakechocolate

I'm trying to get caught up on commenting, but my google reader is going to burst with 1000+ posts and that was from a while ago! It annoys me when my reader isn't cleared so I'm getting through as many as I can.

Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
(I added 1 tsp of instant coffee)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

37 comments:

  1. I too get excited by sprinkles, haha - but I'm VERY excited/impressed by your decorating skills, as always. Gorgeous cupcakes!!

    Hang in there with Google Reader - mark them all as "read," I say!! ;)

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  2. Totally agree about the reader, mine gets filled up much to fast these days =D. The cupcakes look divine, and I love the icing and sprinkles!!

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  3. This recipe is my go-to for chocolate cake, too!! So good.

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  4. grrrr..that damn google reader. It is the death of me!!! Adorable cupcakes

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  5. these look so nice and yummy. I like the sprinkles on top they look nice.

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  6. They're adorable! I like the idea of sprinkles on the sides only. They look very cute.

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  7. That is my favorite go to cake!!! Look adorable with the sprinkles.

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  8. This is the best on the go recipe. Very yum...look at how beautifully you made those! WOW!!

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  9. Gorgeous. I need to find someone who can make ballet themed cupcakes now !

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  10. Aww the bright and pretty colours of these sprinkles just made me smile :) Each cupcake would be even better when decorated like this - love it!

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  11. Those look awesome. I have to admit, I also enjoy sprinkles. I'm not ashamed, it doesn't make me less of a man. Heh. :)

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  12. That flower on top of that chocolaty cupcake looks SO GOOD! Yummy. I hear you on the google reader. I'm working on that tonight. I feel so bad if I can't comment! Take care.

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  13. Hi Steph, Thanks for your comment...I DO love baking all the time for my teens, and my middle son just turned 17 and I made this same frosting for his cake. I used the recipe for Devil's Food Cake from King Arthur's Whole Grain Baking. Your sunflower is so pretty...almost too good to eat!!
    Peace, Stephanie

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  14. What cute cupcakes, I love the sprinkles!

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  15. Sprinkles = Awesome! Can't go wrong with sprinkles.

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  16. It's too funny how I feel the exact same way about sprinkles. Not good, but oh! so exciting... like little jewelry on pastries! LOL

    This is really cute... he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me... he loves me not...

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  17. OK seriously saw the picture and went OOOOO sprinkles!! I love sprinkles! Then I started reading your post! LOL great minds think alike :)

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  18. Sprinkles make me happy too. Especially when they are on such cute cupcakes like these.

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  19. Incredible cupcakes! I love all the sprinkles!

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  20. I'm with ya on the sprinkles, they are just happy looking, like little colored globes of smiles.

    This is one of those recipes you always see, but never get around to trying. I want to start doing some more side of the box type recipes too :)

    And don't worry about the comments. If I get a Steph one once in a while, life is good to me :)

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  21. That is the most perfectly looking cupcake! Those sprinkles are awesome!

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  22. This recipe really works!! I love it, though its a little tempermental! THe cupcake looks great! EVERYTHING looks better with sprinkles!

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  23. What gorgeous cupcakes. These would be too hard to resist.

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  24. I get stressed out when my blog reader has unread posts too. It's like this constant stress/weight on me, even though reading blogs is something I really enjoy! Anyway, these cupcakes look totally awesome. I wish you were my neighbour!

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  25. This is so incredibly pretty! I love it.

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  26. The sprinkles make them look so happy...and yummy.

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  27. I recently made two different kinds of chocolate cupcakes. It was interesting to make them within a week or so of each other and compare.
    I need to develop some decorating skills. The sprinkles are definitely cute and more festive.

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  28. OH! How so so Cute?!?! You made those perfect flowers???? I want to learn to do that too.

    Amazingly cute.
    AmyRuth

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  29. hey these cupcakes look so great, could you please post directions on how to make sunflowers like that. It looks so great

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