Miss Molly's Chocolate Cupcakes With Fudge Frosting

     Last weekend we Celebrated Grandma Harriett & Granddad Dale Young's 66th Wedding Anniversary! Grandma & Granddad are not too mobile these days, therefore the family usually gathers and eats at their home for holidays and special occasions such as this. We have a friend of the family Kerry whom is basically an adopted member of our family, cater all of our get-togethers. Today's Theme: Spaghetti Day, for which ever type of meal is requested from her, she does a fabulous job! On this occasion we were all in charge of bringing a dessert; Molly's Choice: Chocolate Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting! My Choice: Gluten Free Blueberry Coffee Cake, which needs work. I also planned to take pictures at the party to share, but became enraptured by Girl talk the entire time. It's rare that a group of moms us can sit down for an extended period of time without some major child interruptions, we had a few small ones but the older kids were happy to play and shuttle the littler ones around. 

     On another front, Big Charlie is the last tin the line to be stricken with Strep Throat in our family, he can run, but he can't hide. So Last night we tag teamed and I took Little Charlie to Baseball practice and he stayed home while Molly babysat him. I enjoy baseball very deeply, it tickles my toes that Little Charlie loves to play and enjoys the challenge of it. Last year was his first year playing and his coach was horrible to say the least. We were the bad news bears. All of the boys had the biggest hearts and lots of enthusiasm but not the best skills which the coach should have worked with them on drills. This year his team is the Angels and his coach has a good reputation for his kindness and work with the boys. I have been practicing with Little Charlie myself for our homeschool P.E., and his skills have vastly improved over last year. His power, aim and batting are all a lot stronger, I have been very impressed. Opening Day for the Season is March 9th. The boys take their team and individual photos, have practice games and other various fun activities throughout the day, it's a blast. -Mindy

Molly-

Let's get to the point; when it comes to cake, I'm all for chocolate.  Even Little Charlie's birthday cake was smothered in chocolate icing. ( I would have preferred the cake be chocolate too, but we ended up with vanilla. )  It only seemed appropriate for this occasion that the cake and frosting to be all chocolate.  Of course from scratch.  I will never allow a box cake mix to be in our kitchen.  Not unless it's an emergency.  Homemade is just plain better, right?  Making cake batter is a lot of fun.  It uses a lot less ingredients than most people would think.  The only problem is that the cocoa can was too small for the measuring cup.  So I had to use a smaller one that fit in the little opening and dump it into the big one.  Then the trick is to get all of the extra cocoa back into the little bitty opening.  But the best part of baking is having fun and making a mess, right? :)  Well I finally got the cake batter done and the first batch in the oven so I started making the chocolate frosting to go on top.   

I made a huge mistake of trying to cream butter with just a regular whisk, which clumped up inside the whisk.  Then I tried using the hand mixer and 1: I got powdered sugar all over the place and 2: got the beaters stuck with one on each side of the rim of the bowl.  So then Mom came and saved the day, I mean the frosting.  Just as she was finishing the mixer finally died.  And, at the end of the day, we had to schedule a funeral for the little hand mixer that served its purpose so bravely till the end of its years.  Why don't we take a moment of silence to remember the brave little hand mixer.  ( A second passes. )  And we're back.  The cupcakes come out of the oven and go on to the counter to cool.  Once cooled, Mom and I work as a mother/daughter duo to get the frosting on the cupcakes.  Awesome.

Fantasy Springs Casino held a cupcake challenge last year that my mother and I attended together.  This year we were thinking of actually participating in the challenge.  So if any of you out there reading our blog has any flavor combination ideas, please email them to me at bakesalekid@gmail.com or comment at the end of the blog.  Your help will be greatly appreciated.