This is a fantastic chocolate cake recipe. It's from Susie Fishbein's Kosher Palette Cookbook.  Our family has made it a hundred times but typically as a bundt cake.  I've never made it into cupcakes though so I wanted to give it a try and it was still perfect! It was originally a non-dairy recipe but I used regular milk because it didn't matter if it was dairy or not when I was making it.  If you prefer non dairy, just substitute the milk for non-dairy creamer or soy milk.  This cake is super moist and chocolately and not too sweet which is great because this frosting recipe is super sweet!  Perfect combination!



Ingredients:

2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup boiling water

Frosting:
1/4 cup margarine, melted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup milk
3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with paper liners. Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl, stirring until well blended. Add milk, oil, vanilla and eggs; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Fold in boiling water with a spoon or rubber spatula. (the batter will be very thin and runny) Pour into cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For frosting: with electric mixer, beat together melted butter and cocoa powder until combined and smooth.  Add milk and vanilla, beat until throughly mixed.  Now add powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Cool cupcakes completely before frosting!
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As usual I had some produce that I wanted to use so it didn't go to waste.  I had a HUGE zucchini and a HUGE yellow squash.  I wasn't in the mood to make something savory so I made these really delicious cupcakes.  It's a combination of a few recipes plus with a bunch of changes I made myself.  The end result was a really YUMMY one.  I made 24 zucchini cinnamon chip cupcakes and 24 yellow squash cinnamon chip cupcakes but I think next time I'll just combine the two.  Good thing I made 48 cupcakes because I wanted to bring at least 24 to a friends house and my family (my husband and 3 kids ate ALL the other 24 in less than a day).  I guess they liked them.  I thought they were delicious without the frosting but with the frosting, WOW!  I never made a caramel frosting before and now it's a new favorite of mine. 

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup apple juice 

1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups zucchini or yellow squash, grated (you could also do a combination of both)

1 cup of cinnamon chips

Caramel Frosting

1/2 lb caramels unwrapped (about 28 caramels)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup water 

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:

Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin tins with cupcake liners. Wash and grate zucchini, set aside.   In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and apple juice, set aside.  In a medium bowl whisk together, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet until completely combined.  Mix in the grated zucchini and cinnamon chips..  Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full

Bake for about 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Melt caramels in water in top of double boiler over boiling water, stirring now and then.  Cool sauce to room temperature. Thoroughly cream the butter add salt.  Add sugar alternately with the caramel sauce, blending till frosting is smooth and creamy.  You can spread the frosting on with a knife or put frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a large circle or large star tip and pipe frosting out.  A little goes a long way.....this frosting is very sweet. 

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If you can believe I STILL have a lot of very ripe bananas in my freezer to use.  So this is recipe #3.  This is a delicous chocolate banana cupcake recipe.  The frosting is very sweet and although I think it goes well with the cupcake next time I think I'll try a peanut butter frosting which I think would taste even better! 

Ingredients:

CUPCAKES:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 1 med sized banana)
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FROSTING
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened (I used fat free)
1/2 jar of marshmallow creme (Fluff)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (8 oz) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of milk (for stiffer frosting leave the milk out)

Preparation:

CUPCAKES:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with non stick vegetable spray. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another large bow; whisk together egg, mashed banana, water, milk, oil and vanilla extract.  Add the wet ingredieints to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk until combined. (The batter will be pretty thin).  Pour the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcake comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

FROSTING:
Combine all ingredients and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.  Refergerate for 30 minutes and beat again before frosting cooled cupcakes.

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And the birthday celebration continues.  Since I had Charlotte's 4th Birthday Party 10 days before her actual birthday I still needed to make cupcakes for her school parties.  I haven't made these cupcakes in long time but I knew they would be a big hit with the 4 year olds (and the adults too).  Everyone LOVED them!

Ingredients:

1 box of white cake mix
Red food dye
Yellow food dye
Green food dye
Purple food dye
Blue food dye
1 tub of white frosting
Rainbow sprinkles

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Separate prepared cake batter into 5 separate bowls.  Add one color of food dye to each bowl.  Use enough dye to make the colors fairly dark so they will bake up nice and vibrant.  (Gel food dye works the best).  Mix food dye into cake batter until combined well and the color is nice and bright.  Add more food color if nessary to get your desired color.  Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Starting with the blue cake batter spoon one tablespoon into the bottom of the liner.  Next add one tablespoon of the purple batter on top of the blue, next add one tablespoon green on top of the purple.  Do the same with the yellow and then red.  The liners should be filled at least halfway.  If you want just a tie dyed effect you can add the colored batter in any order and any fashion.  If you don't mix it together the colors will bake up separate.  Bake cupcakes according to box directions.  Cool completely before frosting/decorating.

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