Death by Chocolate Cupcakes

Are you ready for this? Maybe you should sit down. With a big glass of milk and a straw.

I made cupcakes. It has been months since I made cupcakes. How does that happen? I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful it felt to be baking something that I love so much.

You know what’s sad? I made these for a reason and can’t even remember why right now. Does chocolate do that? Alter memory?

This is where the milk comes into play. We have a milk chocolate cupcake with fudge pudding inside to make it moist. Melted butter may or may not be involved as well. Then we top it with a chocolate cream cheese buttercream, chocolate sprinkles, and a Ghirardelli chocolate ganache drizzle.

And love. Lots of love was mixed into these little beauties.

The best news? It was really good. And not overwhelming in any realm. I purposely toned down the sweetness of the frosting so that it would balance nicely with the cupcake underneath.

I’m pretty sure that the frosting made my taste-testers cry. Maybe it’s because I sifted the cocoa and powdered sugar? My fingers are still feeling such work.

Have I mentioned how smooth and creamy everything was? The cake was perfect…the trick is to not over bake so that they stay nice and moist. Having an electric oven helps…I over baked a batch of cupcakes that I made for my family in a gas oven last summer. I still haven’t forgiven myself.

It was embarrassing. I vowed to never let it happen again.

I liked the liners and had them on-hand, but the dark chocolate really showed through after baking. So, for pictures, I put them in an extra unbaked liner to pretend that everything came out bright green!

Everybody does it, right? This is why I prefer brown grease-proof paper liners for all of my cupcake presentations.

They were a hit. And they didn’t last long. And it felt so wonderful to be back baking in the kitchen again! It’s funny how the little pleasures in life can make the greatest difference!

And yes…chocolate always helps, too!