chocolate cupcakes with berry buttercream frosting

everytime I make cupcakes, I swear I will never do it again, and then I get a hankering to bake something and BAM I’m standing in the kitchen for 4.5 hours with those little buggers. I can def see why most people prefer to make their baked goods from a box.  I made these for a Christmas party and think they turned out pretty danged delicious. Got the recipe hizzle!

cupcakes (different recipe than the ones I made back here, although, truf time, i think those ones were better)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1.       Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat with a fork (or mixer) till smooth.  Add the boiling water and stir/mix until it’s homogenous. If you don’t know when that is, go back to freshman biology. 

2.       Line your cupcake pan with those little paper things and ladle the mixture until the cups are 2/3 full. Bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes. When a toothpick comes out of the center clean, take out of oven and let sit for 2 minutes.  Take the cupcakes out of the pan and let them cool on a cooling rack.

frosting

1/3 cup butter, room temp

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsb of jam (I’m lucky enough that my gma makes it homemade, but any jam/jelly will work)

1.       Put the butter in a bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth. Slowly add the sugar. Tip: no matter how slowly you do this, it’s gonna be obnoxiously messy. I would just do it in two parts and beat for a couple seconds to mix.

2.       Add milk, vanilla, and jam. Beat until smooth.

3.       Gently smooth onto cupcakes with a rubber spatuala.

4.       Voila!