Favorite chocolate cupcakes

We Boyds have a favorite cupcake recipe. Not only are they delicious, but they have helped us celebrate many events over the years. And don’t forget the frosting! (It’s the secret weapon.)

p{color:gray}. Photo: A platter of mini cupcakes cluster around a regular sized one like bees around their queen.

I prepared a batch of these cupcakes and froze them weeks before “Lucy was born”:/news/2006/lucy-is-here/, intending to frost them as one of my “labor projects”:/news/2006/labor-projects/. (That didn’t actually happen, but we did frost and eat them up after Lucy came home with us!) I baked up a batch of these for Lucy’s “first birthday”:/news/2007/its-my-birfday/, to supplement a giant pink cake. I enjoyed eating these in my “third trimester”:/news/2008/belly-baby-notes-february-1-2008/ with Rosie and planned on baking a batch to frost (again) for a “labor project”:/news/2008/progress-report/, but “Rosie arrived”:/news/2008/rosalind-hazel-boyd/ before I had a chance. However, we did make some of these in a “sleep-deprived haze”:/news/2008/harder-the-second-time/ shortly after Rosie’s birth — a balm for our weary souls.

These cupcakes are just perfect: sturdy enough to not crumble, but with a smooth, almost fudgy texture, complemented by a generous dollop of butter-and-sugar frosting. Until yesterday, I haven’t veered from the excellent recipe “Martha”:http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-cupcakes?xsc=stf_MSLO-RECIPE provided for us and the world.

But inspired by some mini-cupcakes on sale at “Trader Joes”:http://traderjoes.com (when I realized, “I can _make_ these cupcakes, I don’t have to buy them for $3.99!”), Lucy and I dragged out the mini-muffin tin and got to work. Lucy *loves* to put the cupcake liners into the muffin tin — the ideal job for a toddler!

And the beauty of the tiny version is the excellent frosting-to-cupcake ratio — they are just perfect little two-bite morsels of deliciousness. Plus, if you are on Weight Watchers, I say they are 2½ points — not bad. Mmmm, mmmm! I might just go have one right now.

h3. Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

_This recipe yields 24 mini-cupcakes and 4-5 standard-size cupcakes. If you want to bake up a dozen big ones and skip the minis, just line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with those paper liners and you’ll be set._

¾ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup flour
½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
¾ c butter, softened
1 c sugar
3 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
½ c sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 24-cup mini muffin tin with paper liners. Line 4-5 cups in a standard-size muffin tin with paper liners. Eat one chocolate chip, just for fun.

Measure cocoa, flour, baking power, and salt into a bowl; whisk to combine. Cream butter and sugar together, then add eggs, beating them in one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. Add half the flour mixture, then the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture, stirring slowly so it doesn’t pouf all over your kitchen.

Fill up the tiny muffin cups with about 2 teaspoons of batter in each one. Pour the leftover batter into the standard-size cups, filling them about ¾ full. Bake the minis for 12 minutes, and the biggies for 22-25 minutes. They’re done when you poke a toothpick in the center and it comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then put them on a wire rack to thoroughly chill out. While they’re cooling, whip up this frosting:

h3. Vanilla Butter Frosting

¾ c butter, softened
3¾ c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1-2 T milk or cream (optional)

Beat the butter until fluffy, then add the sugar one cup at a time, beating in slowly so you don’t get covered in powdered sugar yourself. Add the vanilla, then see how the texture is — you might need to add 1-2 T milk to soften the frosting a bit. Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes — about 2 teaspoons for each of the minis, and then go nuts on the big ones. Try not to keep dipping your fingers in the frosting for endless taste-tests, but beaters are perfectly safe for toddler-licking — no raw eggs!