Vanilla Cupcakes with Glossy Chocolate Frosting and Secret Recipe Club

I am part of a club - shhh... it's a secret club! To find out more about this secret recipe club click here. This was my first assignment and the minute that I saw these pretty things I knew that I had to try them... I started to rack my brain to figure out what I could use them for, cause you all know that I can't have too many sweets sitting around my house or they will be gone! G-o-n-e, gone!! Seriously - look at that glossy frosting, isn't it just so pretty? So, these babies were made up for my son's Kindergarten teacher and classroom para (and of course a few for us!)

Vanilla Cupcakes with Glossy Chocolate Frosting
(original recipe found here)

Cupcakes:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt (omit if you are using salted butter)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
salt (omit if using salted butter)

Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 and position rack in center. Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin by placing the cupcake liners in it. Sift dry ingredients together. Cream the butter and sugar for 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat for 1 minute after each addition.

With mixer running, add flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, about 2/3rd's full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. **Watch your time... I baked mine for 20 minutes and they got a little too done and were a little dry. Remove from muffin tin and let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting: In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the sugar and cocoa. Gradually stir in the cream. Heat over medium heat, stirring until everything is mixed well, smooth and hot,but not boiling. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and a pinch or two of salt, to taste. Set aside to cool. Dip the cupcake upside down into the frosting and let the excess drip off. Place cupcake on a rack to let frosting set.

This frosting was ROCKING on ice cream later! Ria had mentioned that she halved the frosting recipe and still had enough... I'm not good at listening to what others say all the time, so I still made a full batch and found that she was right! :) But I put the remainder to good use! I'm actually thinking of trying the frosting recipe and adding a little bit of peanut butter to it.... That could have wonderful potential! :)

Make sure you stop by and check out the other recipes Ria has to offer at her blog home! Find it here! Enjoy!!