Most of the time I make cupcakes from scratch. I rather enjoy making a GIANT mess in my kitchen. Especially since my mom bought me a new KitchenAid stand mixer for my birthday this year. The big boy 6QT professional model. She has gotten her money's worth already that's for sure. But sometimes I make a batch of cupcakes from a box mix. I am not always fond of the commercial taste of some box mixes but my friend Steph told me that there was a new one out that was now her fave, DARK chocolate. Being that the only type of chocolate I like is dark I had to try. So I made a batch of 24 and made two different frostings. One was a prior fave of many, the creamy peanut butter frosted ones. The others I will blog about here soon. My twist on these was that I added in cold coffee that I had brewed earlier in the day instead of water in the mix for a richer flavor. I tend to substitute other liquids instead of water for a less box like flavor. I will also add in extracts, spices etc.
I am using my GIANT pastry tip that I now love. Its like the Wilton 1M on steroids. ha ha
The cupcakes are so dark you can hardly see them. I added in a few dark choc chips on top. These were a hit at my husband's work. He told me people asked for my recipe! Now that's a box mix worth using over and over.
