I wanted to make cupcakes to take into work for Halloween but found myself not being satisfied with the chocolate cupcake recipes I was finding. So I decided to combine two recipes, one for the cupcakes and one for the frosting, to come up with these Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Frosting. The cupcake recipe comes from Shape Magazine and is lighter in calories than normal cupcakes but you would never know it. The cake, which includes a wee-bit of coffee, is light and chocolately, just what I wanted. And the frosting (which I colored orange), while not lighter in calories, is thick and sweet. I made these cupcakes while The Rocky Horror Picture Show blared on my television in the background and the whole scenario got me into the Halloween spirit. Happy Halloween!

The cake ingredients:

Cream butter together with the sugars (I forgot brown sugar in my ingredients picture).

Slowly add in the dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk.

Pour into cupcake pan lines with paper liners and back at 350°F for 20 minutes.

The frosting ingredients:

Cream together the butter and combine with the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.

Drop in food coloring, if desired.

Additions: None

Omissions:

• Almond extract

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Shape Magazine and Coastal Living Magazine