In my book, chocolate cupcakes are preferable for a couple of reasons:
- They are already individually sized.
- You can make almost any frosting for them.
- Cleanup is super simple.
I want to share a little secret with you: A few days ago, I bought a new MacBook Air, and [of course] went online to find a rubberized shell for it. In true “I’m just going to buy this one thing from Amazon and log off” form, I ended up with about ten ‘must-have’ items in my cart. One of them was silicone cupcake shells. So upon realizing the obligation I had created for myself, it was my duty to bake cupcakes the day I received my package in the mail. I think they rock, and here’s a pretty inexpensive version if you’d like to try them out:
and the ones i purchased; just a few bucks more:
I am typically a from-scratch kinda girl, but I have come across several recipes online that use boxed cake mix as the basis for a cupcake recipe. I figured, why not? Let’s give it a go.
Let me tell you, if you want light, fluffy, simple chocolate cupcakes – this is your recipe. I was amazed with how airy and approachable these were. No extreme richness, no cake-y density, it really came out better than I had expected! I think the main bright side to this is that you can get creative with the frosting on these suckers. Cream cheese, peanut butter, strawberry, just have a go at whatever your beautiful heart desires. For the glazed chocolate cupcakes in the photo, I simply melted 2 tbsp. peanut butter with a handful of milk chocolate chips, then spread it smoothly over the top. Super yummy. I also found a recipe for strawberry frosting, because Mark had suggested that some fruit flavor would pair well with these, too. That recipe can be found here. Or store-bought frosting would be fine, too! Seriously, the ball is in your court on this one.
[my additional tips!]:
Actual Prep / cook time: really just 23 total minutes!
Clean-up difficulty: 2 [bowl, mixer…]
Overall difficulty to make: 2 [these are so easy!]
Overall satisfaction: 8 [simple, to the point, great vessel for frosting!]
Price range? This dish is under $3 for a dozen cupcakes.
What I would change next time? I wouldn’t change anything!
For your own version, I recommend:
- Use whatever frosting you like!
© 2015 : a flavor journal : by sara alvord
fluffy chocolate cupcakes.
Ingredients
- 1/2 box Devil's Food cake mix of a 15.25 oz box
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup milk I used 2%
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Combine cake mix with sour cream, oil and milk. Stir until creamy.
- Add vanilla and stir again for 10 seconds.
- Beat in 2 eggs until batter is completely smooth and creamy. About 1-2 minutes.
- Carefully spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove from cupcake pan and let cool on wiring racks.
- Frost and serve!
Notes
Tried this recipe?
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