Sprinkles!

Saturday was the 6th anniversary for my husbands ukulele group - yep, I said ukulele group - he asked me to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting (the sprinkles were my idea, he's a man and doesn't care if they look pretty!). I didn't want to tell him that I feel like chocolate cupcakes tend to be dry and just made sure to watch them closely so they wouldn't overbake at all. I made the cake using a boxed mix (triple chocolate fudge - why not use a shortcut when they taste just as good as homemade!), it said to bake for at least 34 minutes and I took them out at 30, they turned out perfect. I also measured exactly 3 tablespoons into 24 muffin cups and ended up with uniform cupcakes for once (I usually just eyeball it and get some that are shorter than others!). 

Topped with homemade chocolate buttercream (click for the recipe, it's delish and that totally makes up for using a cake mix in my book. I have an aversion to store bought canned frosting - there really is a huge difference - but I don't know why that wouldn't work the same as homemade in regards to piping in on your cupcakes...but really, homemade is pretty simple and tastes SO much better - just sayin') that I piped onto the cakes using a 1M tip and a #16 decorating bag - I put the tip at an angle at the top of each cake and squeezed the bag while making a spiral pattern. 

Then came the pretty sprinkles - I have found that if I add them after frosting each cake, they tend to stick better than if you wait and do them after you have frosted them all. He didn't bring any home after the party and I'll take that as a sign they were a hit!