Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes

Torn between chocolate or vanilla cupcakes? Then go with the best of both worlds. These were made with my two favorite cupcake recipes which are basically doctored up boxed cake mixes. The vanilla frosting is an basic buttercream frosting while the chocolate is a rich cream cheese chocolate buttercream. Swirl these together and yum!

Two cupcake recipes makes a lot of cupcakes (approx 36 cupcakes). Therefore I had quit a bit of cupcake batter to play with. I went with making a pan of swirled / marbled vanilla and chocolate, a pan of plain vanilla, and a pan of plain chocolate. Then had fun decorating with different cake tips (Wilton Round 2A tip, Open Star 1M tip, and  French 4B tip)

Served up a mix  for a Saturday night teen girl sleepover. The girls loved them!

And there were even some leftover for the girls to bring home the next day.

Recipes for Cupcakes and Buttercream Frosting ...

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 1 Box white cake mix
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, gently combine oil, egg whites, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
3. Sift in cake mix and stir.
4. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until and inserted knife comes out clean.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate  cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso granules dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In large bowl beat together the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla and espresso water mixture. Beat on medium speed until well combined, approximately 2 minutes.
3. Fill cupcake liners with about 3 tablespoons of batter.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched.

 
For Chocolate Vanilla Layered / Marbled Cupcakes: 

Fill each cupcake liner with 2 tablespoons of vanilla cupcake mix, then on top of each vanilla filled cupcake liner, add 2 tablespoons of chocolate cupcake mix. To make a marbled cupcake, lightly swirl the cupcakes with a knife. I chose not to swirl and just left them layered.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 1/4 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 to 3 cups (10 to 12 ounces) confectioners' sugar
• 2 to 4 tablespoons (1 to 2 ounces) milk

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the salt  and the vanilla. Add the confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons of the milk, and mix well. (Don't over mix). Adjust the consistency of the frosting as needed by adding more confectioners' sugar or milk.  Yield: 2 1/2 cups. 

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• milk if needed

Directions:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until mixed well, about 2 or 3 minutes, scrape down bowl as needed. Add cocoa powder, vanilla extract and slowly add powdered sugar. If your buttercream becomes too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk. .

To decorate cupcakes, frost or pipe buttercream onto cool cupcakes using your favorite cake tip(s). For a great tutorial on cupcake decorating tips and tricks head over to Glorious Treats.

Enjoy!!

Crockpot Chocolate Peanut Raisin Clusters

If you can use a Crockpot (and you don't mind the wait), you can make these easy melt in your mouth Chocolate Peanut Raisin Clusters. There's nothing better than peanut, raisins and chocolate all in one bite! But be careful, your friends and family will fight you for the last one!

I have made these several times using this recipe. However, I wanted to use up the chocolate chips I had leftover from the holidays and really wanted to add raisins. This is the recipe that I came up with:

In a crockpot, add 1 (12 oz.) bag of white chocolate chips, 1 1/2 bags (18 oz.) mini semi-sweet chocolate chops, 4 oz of Baker's chocolate, and 1 tsp of shortening, such as Crisco (do not use butter, margarine, or oil).

Set the slow cooker / Crockpot on low. Cook on low for 3 hours

After 3 hours you will see the chocolate chips and bake's chocolate has melted.

 Stir and mix well 

 Add raisins and stir to mix well. Let stand 10 minutes

 Drop by heaping tablespoons onto parchment paper

 Let cool and serve! Yum!

Ingredients:

12 ounces white chocolate chips
18 ounces mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 1/2 bags of mini chips)
4 ounces sweet German chocolate
1 teaspoon Crisco shortening
16 ounces lightly salted dry roasted peanuts
1 cup raisins (I would use more next time but this is what I had on hand)

Directions:

Place all ingredients in crockpot except the raisins). Cook on low for 3 hours (* Don't touch just leave it be - it's ok). After 3 hours, turn pot off, mix, add raisins, stir to mix well. Let sit for 20 minutes. Cover a large surface with waxed or parchment paper. Stir mixture completely. Drop by teaspoons full onto paper. Let harden and store in airtight containers.

Notes:  Crockpots cook at different heat levels so you may want to check after 2 hours.

Enjoy!