Chocolate Ahhhh Cupcakes

Hey Everyone! I am so a "Hazzard"! But before that day happened I was a McNeal for 29 years. Yes, the first daughter in a family of 11 kids. Eight brothers, two sisters. I have a life full of funny stories growing up with so many siblings. When I was contemplating my next recipe for Hazzard In The Kitchen, I thought I would treat you to a "cupcake size" bite of: Not So Cheaper By The Dozen, Minus One!

So.. my brother Eddie {11 months younger then I} would sleep like a rock when we were kids and he hated to have us wake him up. Life would have been safer with an alarm clock, trust me. Ed knew my Mom would send one of us Un-Volunteer's up to his room to wake him. So before he would go to sleep he would line up his boots and shoes by the bedside. The moment you cracked open that door to say: "Ed it s time to wake up", his reflexes were in warped gear! Shoes and boots would come flying at the door the moment you said his name. You just never knew what you were in for. If it wasn't flying shoes it was a booby-trapped door. Ed would rig the door with twine so when it opened, big old tin coffee cans would fall on top of you. Always an A+ for creativity...

So lets talk Cupcakes. It s a whole new chocolate cupcake Kate {my daughter and I created}.

We brought chocolate cupcakes to a whole new level. It began as a mistake and turned into an Ahhh moment. Recipe below the pix!

Chocolate Ahhhh Cupcakes

Cake Ingredients:

One Box Dark Chocolate Cake Mix {I prefer Duncan Hines}

Oil, Water, Eggs {ingredient amount as noted on the box}

1 Cup Semi Sweet Morsel Bits

1 Box Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix

Butter Cream Frosting Ingredients

3 Sticks of Butta' {the real stuff} softened

1 Tsp. Vanilla

4 Cups Confectioners Sugar - give or take a bit....

1 Tsp. to a Tblsp of Milk or Cream {if needed}

Now this is EASY.

Preheat the oven to the temperature noted on your cake mix box recipe. Easy.

Line each of your cup cake pans with cup cake liners. Easy.

Follow the cake mix exactly as the directions read on the box. Easy.

Once completed now turn off your mixer. Easy.

Next, open your box of Ghirardelli Brownie mix {it is THE best of brownie mixes} and add 1/3'd of the box of Brownie mix to cake mixture, add in 1/2 cup of water, blend gently with a rubber spatula, its ok if its slightly lumpy. Now toss in your semi sweet bits. Still Easy.

Fill each cupcake paper 2/3 rd s full. Bake til center of cupcake comes out clean with the piercing of a toothpick Note: {If you pierced a melted semi sweet bit..it will never come out clean!}. I'm thinking 15 minutes is a close approximate to start checking your cakes!

So while your waiting for the cakes to bake lets start on the Butter Cream Frosting. In a mixing blend your 3 sticks of softened butter on medium speed til light in color. I suggest you stay with medium to low speed so you are not adding to much air to your icing.. {which can make it just to "whippy"}. Now adding a cup full at a time, blend in your confections sugar. I'm not a big fan of super sweet tasting icing, so I low ball the amount of sugar, feeling less sugar in this is best. Sometime it takes 4 cups some times it's more. Just be sure to keep blending it on low speed and keep tasting it. Once the icing starts to bind and hold together, I blend in my vanilla. If the vanilla doesn't make it moist enough add in a teaspoon of milk. Keep tasting it..you want to TASTE the Butta. you want to keep it spreadable, not thick and not falling apart! I am a real stickler for perfect icing.. hence I'm constantly tasting and adding slowly til it is just right. Toss the icing into the refrigerator until your ready to frost your cakes.

NOTE TO SELF: Don't even try this Frosting recipe with Margarine or Crisco! You would break my cupcake heart!

If you want to be assured of NO crumbs picked up in the Frosting process - do this. Put your cakes into the freezer for an hour or so. I take the entire cake pan with the cupcakes in it, cover it all in foil, place in the freezer. Then begin frosting them. Pull a few out of the freezer at a time while you start frosting them, keeps them frozen a bit this way. As you will see you can easily pipe some icing into the center of the cupcake, or you can use pudding as I used this time around. I take a meat thermometer and drill a hole into the center of the cake, but not going to the bottom of the cake. I toss some icing or pudding into a piping bag {I used a sniped off end of a ziplock sandwich bag & make a teeny tiny hole }, start piping it in! Then frost your cup- cakes. Take a Tablespoon of cocoa powder and gently sift over the top of each cupcake or garnish as you please!

Enjoy these delectable delights.