Devil's Food Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 4 ounces (1 stick), room temperature
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
3. Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
4. Using a mixer, preferrably with paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar about 2 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until mixed.
5. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.
6. Divide the batter into a prepared cupcake/muffin tin with liners. About 3/4 fulll.
7. Bake about 20 minutes, or until set. Let cool completely before icing.

Even EASIER:

You can easily cut the time down for these cupcakes, if you’ve got your hands full, by starting with a devils food cake mix, and adding a pouch of chocolate fudge pudding to make it a little bit more ‘homemade.’ These are fun to decorate with kids, and can be brought to school for a Valentine’s Day Treat. Let the little ones cut out the heart shapes from the fondant and assemble them on the cupcake themselves! You can also make mini cupcakes ( seen below ) with little heart shaped sprinkes.

Vanilla Frosting:

Ingredients:

• Confectioners Sugar ( About 4-5 cups ), Sifted
• Pure Vanilla Extract (I use vanilla my brother brought me back from Mexico, its delicious and in a glass bottle with a cork!)
• 1-2 Tbsp. Milk
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and shortening in mixer, with paddle attachment on medium for about 2 minutes.
2. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and beat until smooth, Add another 1/2 cupe. Add about 2 tsp or more vanilla, to taste.
3. Add gradually the remaining sugar and add milk until you reach the consitency you desire. A little bit thicker for piping would be best. If you are going to use a spatula to ice them, you can use a little less sugar and more milk for a thinner consitency to spread on the cupcake.
4. Continue to mix on medium until smooth.

Using a large star tip, pipe frosting onto cupcakes. You can decorate these in any way you desire. Try using different tips for different effects and texture.

For garnish you can add heart sprinkles, OR using Fondant add color using Wilton Icing Gel. Add a small amount of desired color to fondant and knead untill the color is completely incorporated. You want it not to look like tie-dye. Using a rolling pin flatten out onto surface. To help it not stick, spread a small amount of cornstarch onto the counter. Using cookie cutters, cut out different sized heart shapes and allow to dry on counter while you bake/frost cupcakes. You can also make these a day ahead and allow them to dry on a flat surface overnight. They will be easier to use once hard.

I made mine before I baked my cupcakes, and once I was finished I placed them in my cupcake courier, and the little fondant hearts started to fold over! They weren’t hard enough yet and began to go soft again once they were covered. So make sure if you are placing them into a covered container, that the hearts are fully hard or else they will wilt, and you will wake up to some broken hearts!

I can't remember where this came from but it sounds yummy!