Chocolate Cupcakes

We were in charge of making the cake for the birthday party (do you see a theme to this week's posts?), so we decided to go with cupcakes, since they travel the best and work well for 6 kids under 3.5. I came across this recipe and thought it fit our description pretty well. Keeping in mind, that prior to starting this second mat leave I've never made cupcakes from scratch, and when I go back to work, the box variety will probably become our go to item again. But, these were simple and delicious, I'd definitely make them again. We had very few changes to the recipe except to remove the salt.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pans with 24 cupcake liners. Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir until your arm gets too tired to continue. Add the boiling water, and beat, just until blended. The mixture is very watery, but turns out wonderful. Pour the batter into the liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the center of the cupcakes springs back when lightly touched. Cool and frost.

We used the same Vanilla Butter Cream Icing as posted and it was deliciously sweet.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, just slightly cooler than room temperature

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
food coloring, if desired

Directions:

Beat butter in a medium-sized mixing bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in 3 cups of the powdered sugar. Beat in milk and vanilla. Blend in remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar. If desired, tint with food coloring.