Adventures in baking from scratch: chocolate cupcake edition.

In my mind, I am the most awesome baker ever.

I like to pretend that I'm Martha Stewart, milling around my little apartment kitchen in my adorable Flirty Apron and making all these perfect desserts from scratch. Truth of the matter is, I typically suck at baking. The first batch of chocolate chip cookies I made from scratch wouldn't rise in the oven [i don't think i put the right amount of ingredients in it]. The only thing I've ever been able to make successfully from scratch is the Pioneer Woman's key lime pie [which has, fortunately, been a hit every time i've made it], but I wanted to expand beyond that.

So this past Saturday, while JJ and I were stuck in Sprouts during one of the half dozen storms that hit OKC that day, I decided I wanted to try chocolate cake from scratch. I used my trusty iPhone to search for recipes and found one for a "crazy" cake [which means you basically mix all the ingredients in the pan you're going to bake it in]. The idea to use that one lasted all of 48 hours, because the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to use it. So I looked for a different recipe and finally found one on Tuesday evening.

After watching the highly entertaining debate [i'm being a little sarcastic there] with a coworker and JJ, I put him to bed, did some stuff around the apartment, and settle down to make this cake from Fabulessly Frugal [which i wound up turning into cupcakes]:

Easy Chocolate Cake

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans (I just made mine in 9×13 baking pan and increased bake time to 42 minutes)
• In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer.
• Stir in the boiling water by hand (make sure you mix it in well… the batter will look runny, but have faith… it’ll turn out!)
• Pour evenly into the greased pan(s)
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  (For the 9×13 cake pan I baked it for about 42 minutes… do the toothpick test, it should come out fairly clean).
• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely.  (I just leave mine in the pan)
• Delicious by itself, either slightly warm or even chilled!  Try it with cool whip, or chilled pie cherries and cool whip!

Making the cake made me feel so accomplished. I wanted to use my Kitchen Aid mixer, but I made the cake batter at midnight [yes, my sleep habits suck ass], which was too late to be using a KA mixer. So I just grabbed my favorite orange bowl and made the batter using my hand mixer. When I mixed in the boiling water, I flipped out on the inside - the batter was so runny that I was afraid I'd ruined it and almost tossed it out. But I mixed it for awhile longer, used my ice cream scoop to get the runny batter out and pour it into the cupcake molds, and stuck it in the oven. Since the cake called for making it as two cakes for 30 to 35 minutes, I figured I'd try 20 minutes first and see what happened.

I spent the 20 minutes doing boring stuff, like cleaning up the mess I'd made in the kitchen and ironing clothes. When they came out, I used the new cupcake racks I bought earlier this year and let them sit out. I ate one when it was still warm and thought it tasted OK, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Disappointed that I'd jacked the recipe up, I decide to see if my coworkers thought the same. I boxed them up, put them by my purse so I wouldn't forget to take them to work, and headed to bed.

Yesterday, I took them to work and ate one as a pick-me-up for the long day ahead of me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cake was actually really good. It was very moist, dense, and didn't need any sort of frosting or anything on it [although i wish i had tried the cool whip and berries idea - yum]. Then, each coworker tasted the cupcake and LOVED them. I spent the entire day patting myself on the back for making a bomb-ass cake from scratch. I walked in the door with 11 cupcakes and walked out with 2, which made me feel special. They liked it! They really liked it!

I ate the other two tonight, and they were still as moist and delish as they were yesterday. I will be adding this recipe to my handy dandy recipe binder that my mom bought me a few weeks ago, and I can't wait to make it again. I was just so happy that the cake came out and people liked it.

Of course, this doesn't really help my wanna-be Martha Stewart side. In fact, now I feel invincible as a baker and plan to try homemade brownies soon. But whatev.

First attempt at homemade chocolate cupcakes = success. Yeah buddy.