Food Friday: Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever

It's the time of the year when everyone is meeting tons of new people. Even if it's just to impress your friends, or that special someone (the way to a man's heart is through his stomach),  I recommend these delicious chocolate cupcakes. These are, without a doubt, the best cupcakes I’ve ever had.

You will need:

Dry things:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

Wet things:

• ½ cup milk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Splash of vanilla
• ½ cup water (it works better if it's hot)

Directions:

Mix all of the dry things together in a bowl, and then add all of the wet things to the dry things. Mix well. It may seem a little runnier than normal cake batter, but it will turn out fine, I promise.

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes in a greased (or lined) muffin tin, until a toothpick comes out clean and all that jazz. Fill the cups about ¾ full. 

Makes 12.

And there you have it! Delicious cupcakes in no time!

BUT

What are cupcakes without frosting?

Quick Buttercream Frosting

You will need:

½ cup butter (margarine works too, but not as well)

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Little bit of milk (a tablespoon maybe, eyeballed)

Splash of vanilla

Directions:

Put the butter in a mixing bowl and whip it with a mixer on high, adding the sugar about half a cup at a time. Once all of the sugar is added, it should begin to hold its shape, so add your little bit of milk (for extra creaminess, use high percent cream) and your vanilla. You’re good to frost now! If it’s a little runny, stick it in the fridge/freezer for a while (but not too long) and it will harden a little bit.

If you want your cupcakes to be pretty, you need to wait until they are completely cool before adding the frosting. If you’re impatient, stick them in the freezer which I didn’t do.  If you want extra pretty cupcakes but don’t have a lot of piping tools (like me and everyone else I know), put the frosting in a Ziploc bag and snip off the corner so you can control the frosting a little better. I was not really too focused on that with these because I really just wanted to eat them.

There you have it!

Quick and easy at less than two hours from start to eating, even with cooling (in my freezer) and frosting them and a great way to make your friends love you forever.

Happy baking!