Chocolate Cupcakes with a Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!). We went out to a fun gastropub for dinner and then came back to our place after for dessert and presents.  These yummy cupcakes are made with coffee, which really enhances the chocolate flavor.  Again, I’m not the biggest chocolate fan, but I love the coffee addition.  The chocolate cream cheese frosting is rich and decadent and puts these cupcakes over the edge.  I love these blue polka dot cupcake liners I found at Home Goods.  They make for such a cute presentation (but to be honest they aren’t very practical for eating).  It was a great night celebrating my mama with my favorite people, good food, and a yummy dessert.

Chocolate Cupcakes (Cake recipe from: Sweetapolita)
Yield: about 24 cupcakes
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee (can be hot)
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners. In bowl of electric mixer, sift all dry ingredients. Add all remaining ingredients to bowl with the dry ingredients and with paddle attachment on mixer, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed (you may need the plastic splashguard that comes with mixer) and pour into prepared cupcake pan until 2/3 full (or just less). Batter will be liquidy.
Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with a few crumbs. Try not to overbake. Cool on wire racks in pans for 5 minutes then gently turn cupcakes onto racks until completely cool.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cooled melted chocolate
tbsp spoon milk if too thick

Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer/stand mixer until smooth.

Scoop all the frosting into a piping bag or into a large ziplock bag and snip a small edge of the corner and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

The Little Things

|coffee & donuts al fresco with my husband & puppies|

Andrew and I spent last week in Mexico (look out for photos next week). It was absolutely incredible. Exactly what we both needed- fun in the sun and plenty of R&R. It’s always bitter sweet coming home from a vacation, but I had plenty of fun this week to make the transition back to real life fun. Happy Friday!

|ruff day for Pipes on our 2 hour hike|
|midweek steak & wine, yes please|
|shopping in Beverly Hills with mama|

|drooling over the cakes & cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery|

The Little Things

|the part of birthdays|

This past Tuesday was my 25th birthday. I’m officially a quarter of a century. This post is the little things from my birthday week that made me smile. As you can see below it’s mostly food. It was a really nice week with family. My family and husband completely spoiled me! This weekend will be a busy (but fun) one! I hope your week was filled with little things that made you smile. Happy Friday!

|birthday breakfast Andrew made|

|Filet mignon with a balsamic reduction and goat cheese also made by Andrew|

|Georgetown cupcake selfie|

|birthday gift from my mom & sisters that makes me feel fancy and sophisticated|

The Little Things

|a mini sweet treat to brighten my day|

Boy oh boy, it’s been a busy week. I have jumped in head first to my internship in the world of public health and am absolutely loving it! Grad school also started and is keeping me busy. I’ve been prepping for posts but have had no time to actually post! I do have some good posts planned for next week, so stay tuned. 🙂 Here are a few snapshots from my week. I hope you all have a relaxing and fun weekend!

|we got Piper groomed and I think the gave us the wrong dog… she used to be cuter…|

|Sprinkles sampling|

|a sneak peak of our new bar cart|

|feeling like a big girl getting dressed up for my internship|

The Little Things

Hands down the best part of this past week was getting the newest member of our family, an adorable little pipsqueak of a pup named Piper. She was a surprise to us all. My sister saw Piper’s sister and sent me a picture and it was game over. I had to have her. She is tiny as can be. She is melting hearts left and right with her precious face. (Warning: I will be sharing way too many pictures of my new baby over the next few weeks.)  Here’s a look at the little things from this past week that put a smile on my face.

My little family.

Family hikes.

essie turquoise & caicos

My mom making cupcakes. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!