Hey All!! So one of the things you might notice different about my blog is that I’ve been watermarking or putting my blog name on all of my pictures. I hope this is not severely annoying to everyone. I’ve started doing this because I had another blog take one of my pictures and not only put it on their blog without citing me, but they actually took my picture and watermarked it as if it was their own. I can understand not knowing that you’re suppose to cite anything that you use that is not your own, but to take someone else’s picture and actually try to take credit for it is just wrong. So, I’m going to start marking my photos so this doesn’t happen again. Please be patient if this bugs, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t love other bloggers to use recipes or photos from my blog, just that I feel like credit should be given for someones hard work. That’s all.
Anyways! Enough with my venting, and onto deliciousness 🙂 I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while, but have been holding off until the weather got cooler. To be honest, I was a tiny bit disappointed. When I pulled out this recipe and read through it before making it, I was like, “Where is the hot chocolate mix?” Not included in this recipe. Basically this is just a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting, which bummed me out a little bit. But being the optimist that I am, I though, “Let just see how it turns out.” Don’t get me wrong, this recipe was really yummy. Just not really what I had hoped for. You don’t really get the true flavor of hot chocolate in this recipe. Just a chocolate cupcake with yummy marshmallow frosting, but still delicious.
P.S. If you are thinking that you want to just substitute the baking cocoa with hot chocolate mix, don’t. I tried doing this before with this recipe and it doesn’t turn out. It might work if you add like 1/3 cup baking cocoa and 1/2 cup hot chocolate mix, but when I just substituted with hot chocolate, the cupcakes came out not tasting chocolaty enough. Just thought I’d share my trial and error experience. But don’t let my opinion detour you from trying this recipe. I really did like it, it just wasn’t exactly what I expected, but still really yummy. Not to mention, a totally cute idea. Enjoy 😉
Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup hot water
2/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
3/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1 cup marshmallow creme
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened baking cocoa (optional for decoration)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder; set aside.
In small bowl, mix hot water and cocoa until dissolved; set aside.
In large bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, about 1/3 of mixture at a time, and cocoa mixture, about 1/2 at a time, beating just until blended.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans; place on cooling racks to cool.
Meanwhile, prepare frosting by mixing powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed in a large bowl. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoons of the milk.
Stir in marshmallow creme.
If needed, gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. Spoon into resealable food-storage plastic bag; seal bag. Cut tiny hole in one bottom corner of bag.
Pipe 3 small dollops of frosting mixture on top of each cupcake to resemble melted marshmallows. Sprinkle with cocoa.
Recipe from Betty Crocker The Big Book of Cupcakes