smiles by chocolate

This weekend, we had the privilege of having my little nephews stay with us. Since they live close to 600 km's away, this only happens a few times a year and it is always such a pleasure getting to spend time with them.

One of the many activities we had planned this long weekend was to bake and decorate some cupcakes for someone special that has been going through a lot lately. We all agreed that these chocolatey cupcakes would be the perfect solution and would definitely bring a smile to everyone's face. It also helps that there would be extra for them to munch on, not to mention all the extra decorating goodies they could stick their fingers into.

The cupcakes were made extra fudgy and with a lot of love. Everyone had a special role in making them...one person was the recipe reader, the other was the stirrer, while another was the egg cracker. Once the cupcakes were baked, we had to wait for them to cool before icing and decorating. Is there a better way to pass the time than to dance?

Once we all caught our breath, we iced the mini cakes and decorated them with smarties, raisinettes, malt balls, and chocolate chips...

Then we had to choose our favorites and taste them to make sure they were good enough to eat...

All in all, we had a great time baking and the memories were worth the chocolatey finger prints around the kitchen table any day.

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
• 2 cups (500mL) sugar
• 1/2 cup (125mL) cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons (10mL) baking soda
• 1 tsp (5mL) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1 cup (250 mL) vegetable oil
• 2 x eggs plus enough buttermilk to measure 2 cups (500mL)
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees Celsius). In mixer, on low speed, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Add oil, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Increase speed and beat for 2 minutes, until well combined. Spoon into 20 paper-lined muffin cups, filling halfway.
2. Bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are firm and tester comes out clean. Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Icing

• 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 3 cup icing sugar
• 6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted, and, cooled

1. In bowl and with electric beaters, beat butter until fluffy; gradually beat in cream.
2. Beat in vanilla.
3. Beat in icing sugar, 1 cup (250 mL) at a time.
4. Beat in melted chocolate until fluffy and smooth.