New Fav Recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes

                                          (The pink ones are yet another batch of billy's vanilla cupcakes and the  turquoise ones are made from this recipe of chocolate cupcakes)

I know I have a lot of chocolate cake recipes on this blog so far but what can I say? I'm a chocoholic! But these are by far the easiest to make and the best! They are really chocolatey and rich and super fluffy and moist! Gotta love um! Makes 24. Recipe courtesy of bakingbites.

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional but I didn't use them)

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in 2-12 cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until thoroughly mixed.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Whisk into flour mixture until all of the ingredients are mixed in and no streaks of flour remain. Add in optional mini chocolate chips, if using.
Fill muffin cups evenly with the prepared batter.
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs.
Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Vanilla Doesn't Have To Be So Vanilla...

I will say it again, I love Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake recipe! It is sooooo super good! Here are a few ways I have made/ decorated these. You can have so much fun with them! And they are always a crowd pleaser! Some people don't like chocolate (CRAZIES if you ask me) but most people do love vanilla.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband is not a fan of cookies. He usually won't even eat the cookies I make (not because they are yucky- I promise but probably because I always make peanut butter cookies and he hates peanut butter. More for me I guess =) ). These on the other hand... GOBBLE gobble GoBbLe! We stop at cookie corner here and there when we at at the mall or whatever and he always gets a couple of the double chocolate cookies with walnuts so I figured that I could make them for him, and mine were better! He said so himself!
recipe courtesy of food network.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) *I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.

For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack