Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes are nice and moist and rich. The full recipe makes 24 cupcakes. You can easily halve it to make a dozen, as I did today. Caralie got to frost most of them and gave them green sprinkles in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. Love that site! The best thing about this recipe is that it contains no eggs so you can lick the batter with abandon.

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup packed unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins (24 for full recipe, 12 for half).

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla and stir until smooth. Divide batter into muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tops spring back when touched. Cool completely before frosting.


BAKERELLA'S BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 lb. box powdered sugar (or 3/12 cups)
1-5 tsp. milk, half and half, or cream
food coloring (optional)

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add sugar slowly (1/2 cup at a time), allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more. Add milk 1 tsp. at a time until frosting is at your preferred texture. Add food coloring, if desired. Frost completely cooled cupcakes. Store in an airtight container. Does not require refrigeration.