Surprisingly Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes and Buttermilk Cupcakes

I wanted to make cupcakes for a graduation party, but didn’t have enough butter so I searched the internet for oil based cupcake recipes. Surprisingly, I was able to come across a vegan recipe for chocolate cupcakes that overall received a great rating. At first, I was really skeptical of the recipe because it did not require eggs or milk (but then again it was a vegan recipe) and used distilled vinegar instead, but after carefully reading a handful of reviews and looking at pictures, I decided to try the recipe and I am glad I did. However, I made some changes based on the reviews. I incorporated semi-sweet chocolate chips and more cocoa powder into the recipe because many reviewers commented how the cupcakes were not chocolaty enough. Many reviews said the batter is more liquidly than a normal cupcake batter, but I thought the consistency of the batter was comparable to other cake batters. This can be due to the fact that I added chocolate chips as well as more cocoa powder. 

The cupcakes turned out really well. They were very chocolaty, a little dense, moist in the inside, and harder/drier on the top---very delicious. I topped these cupcakes with homemade vanilla butter cream frosting.

Just in case people did not like chocolate, I wanted to have another favored cupcake. I decided to make buttermilk cupcakes since I had a lot of buttermilk leftover. I was able to find a recipe on a blog that required ingredients that I have. When searching for buttermilk cupcake recipes, I learned from reviews that you can actually make buttermilk by adding 2 tablespoons of distilled vinegar to a cup of milk. Next time, I shall try this instead of purchasing buttermilk. After whipping the ingredients together in the recipe, a very fluffy batter like whipped cream formed. This was my first time ever making a batter as fluffy as this one, but the cupcakes turn out very good. It reminded me of sponge cake---very light and tasty; however, I would have been more satisfied if the cupcakes did not shrink after cooling. To top these fabulous cupcakes, I used homemade chocolate butter cream frosting.

After frosting all the cupcakes, I placed them in tray pans and decorated them. At the party, these treats goodness were a huge success. Many of the attendees praise how good they were and I saw many people taking seconds. I will definitely use these recipes in the future again---maybe I will try to make cake versions next time. The recipe to these wonderful delights are below. Enjoy:)

Chocolate Cupcakes (Adapted from Food.com, yields about 16 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cps flour
• 1 cp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ cp cocoa powder
• ½ cp semi sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cp canola oil
• 1 cp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp distilled vinegar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix all the ingredients together.
3. Line cupcake try with cupcake wrappers or grease trays.
4. Fill wrappers or trays about 2/3 up.
5. Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Cupcakes should be done when toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
6. Frost cupcakes when cooled.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup of powder sugar
• ½ cp butter at room temperature
• 1 tsp of vanilla 

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.

Buttermilk Cupcakes(Adapted from mel’s kitchencafe, yields about 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cp flour
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ stick of butter at room temperature
• 1 cp sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cp of buttermilk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whisk dry ingredients together.
3. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy (about 2 minutes).
4. Mix eggs and yolk one at a time, then vanilla into the butter mixture.
5. Add 1/3 of flour mixture into butter mixture and mix. Then add ¼ buttermilk and then mix. Repeat until all dry mixture and buttermilk are gone.
6. Line cupcake tray with cupcake wrappers or grease cupcake trays.
7. Fill cupcake wrappers or trays half way or a little less than half way.
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Do not over bake.
9. Frost cupcakes when cooled.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 9 tbsp of unsweetened
• 3 tbsp of oil
• ½ cp butter at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cp powder sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Mix ingredients together until smooth and creamy.