Chocolate, and Vanilla Cupcakes.

          Halloween is approaching, and it's not a holiday without succulent treats , right?  I had asked my husband what he would like to have for a Halloween treat, he said cupcakes, I was a bit surprised, since he claims to not be a fan of sweets.  Speaking of my husband, he has been cooking with me lately, and I kind of love it! Usually if someone is in my kitchen, and all they do is loom around, looking at what I'm doing, they're usually just in my war path at that point. People often get kicked out of my kitchen, haha.
         Cakes don't happen often around here, usually just birthdays, the rest of the time,  we make cookies or brownies around here. I had to look up a vanilla cake recipe, and adjust it to the way I would like it.


Makes 2 Dozen






Ingredients :

3 Cups Flour
2 Cups Sugar
5.1 Oz Package Instant Vanilla Pudding, dry -one tablespoon  set aside for frosting*
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
4 Eggs
1 1/4 Cup Milk
3 Tsp Vanilla
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 Cup Dark Cocoa Powder

Cupcake Papers
Frosting*

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350º

1. In a Large bowl, put in flour, sugar, instant pudding mix, baking powder, and salt, mix thoroughly.

2. In a small bowl, add the the eggs, milk, vanilla, and oil, whisk until blended.

3. Slowly add wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients, whisk until they have all just come together, if you  over-beat the batter, it will result in a chewy, less delicious cupcake. Batter will be very thick.

4. Line muffin tin with papers, fill each paper about 3/4 full with vanilla batter. At least 12 of them.

5.  Put  cocoa powder in bowl, and stir into remaining batter.

6. Bake Cupcakes for 20 minutes, or until toothpick is inserted, and comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.  These freeze really well.

Vanilla!

Chocolate!

I made my own  butter cream frosting, for that you need

2 Sticks unsalted butter, softened.
3 - 4 Tablespoons Milk
1 Pound powdered sugar.
1 Tbsp Instant pudding.
3 Tsp Vanilla
Food Coloring if desired.

1. In a large bowl, place butter, pudding mix, milk, (coloring), and vanilla, whisk  until incorporated.
2. Slowly add powdered sugar, stirring gently, powdered sugar easily makes a mess.
3.  Take an electric hand mixer, and begin to further mix the frosting, turn to highest setting, mix until fluffy!

Use  a knife to  frost, or  get all fancy, and  place into a piping bag with a decorative tip.

Strawberry sauce to make it more spooky for Halloween.

We had cupcakes for breakfast.