Dining In - Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting

I made a quick batch of cupcakes to bring to a friend's birthday party. I found the cupcake recipe online on AllRecipes.com and chose it because of the high ratings. I was pleased to see it didn't have a ton of fat in it, just 1/3 cup of oil. They came out great! The taste and consistency reminded me of devil's food cake, moist and light, but not too sweet. I wanted to pair it with a vanilla frosting so I used a recipe I found in Chloe's Kitchen and halved it. I had plenty to frost all the cupcakes, so I'm very glad I didn't make the full batch. You can find the frosting recipe in Chloe's Kitchen in the Happy Birthday Cake recipe. 



Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water

Vanilla Frosting
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons almond milk


To Prepare Chocolate Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a dozen-cup cupcake pan with liners and lightly grease.

In a large bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Once sifted together add in wet ingredients: oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water. Stir until combined, don't overstire.

Pour into cupcake liners. I filled mine pretty high and that gave them the full dome shape versus the flat-topped cupcakes. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from pan and let cool completely before frosting.

To Prepare Vanilla Frosting:

In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer smooth out the vegetable shortening for a couple minutes. 

Slowly add in powdered sugar, then add in vanilla and almond milk. Add more almond milk as needed, but not too much as it will make the frosting too thin. 

Using a bent icing knife frost the cupcakes, add sprinkles if desired.