Kiddie Party Cupcakes Part 1: Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes

We hosted a party last Saturday for kids and some friends. For weeks now, I've been itching to bake something, anything. And this party was the perfect excuse to tinker in the kitchen again. My family is not so big on sweets/dessert (gasp!). So whenever I do bake something we end up giving it away. And that's why I love parties. I get to bake anything I want and I know people will eat and love it and not rot away to oblivion in our fridge. The original recipe is posted in Cupcake Bakeshop's blog, click here.


Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes (mine only made 23)

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup salted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

(These are the original instructions. I don't have a stand mixer, only a hand mixer. And I don't think the poor ten-year old mixer could handle it. So I mixed it differently. See below.)

Original instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Measure out everything but the eggs directly into your mixer bowl. Mix on low speed just until incorporated. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes.

Alternate Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare your pans, line with cupcake liners.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together. Stir until it's evenly mixed. Mix in the sugar.
3. In a Pyrex cup mix the milk, vanilla and eggs.
4. Now, mix the butter with the flour-cocoa mixture.

My flour, cocoa powder and baking soda are mixed and the butter is in the bowl. The milk, eggs, and vanilla are measured. Ready to start mixing.

The butter is mixed in.

5. Mix in the milk-eggs in 3 additions. Scrape sides of the bowl everytime.

I'll just scrape the sides of the bowl and I'm ready for the last addition of the milk-egg mixture.

6. Ladle the bater in the pans.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool in the pan for a minute or two then transfer on wire racks.

These cupcakes are asking for it.

Chocolate Buttercream
enough to lightly frost 24 cupcakes

1 stick butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk

1. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft.
2. Sift the cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar together and beat in 1 cup at a time of this in the butter. Alternately add milk. You may need to add more milk. I did. I think I ended up adding 1/4 cup more milk. Oh, I forgot to write. I added about 3 ounces melted chocolate to the mixture which made the frosting sort of fudgey. Yummy. This is probably why I needed more milk than the recipe called for.

Green cupcake liners look so pretty, don't they? I got a friend to help pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

These cupcakes are really asking for it. I wonder if there'll be any left for the poor kiddies.