Hershey's Cuppa Cakes

Firstly this is NOT a sponsored post and I have no association with Hershey's whatsoever.

In fact, I am not exactly a great chocolate fan either.

However, I'm seriously very proud of my Hershey's Cupcakes. I made these for the benefit of hubby who absolutely loves all things chocolate. Hershey's deserve all the credit for that big childish grin on my Hubby's face when he saw the cupcakes I made for him! But I do confess I am not a baking expert and I just started dabbling in this about 2 months back.

I was browsing for chocolaty recipes and stumbled upon this recipe on the Hershey's homepage.

The recipe is here below, exactly as it is from the homepage.

This is the 'recipe picture', taken off the site.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups sugar
2. 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3. 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (see picture)
4. 2 teaspoons baking soda
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk* (I used buttermilk, which you can buy easily from Village Grocer)
8. 2 eggs
9. 1 cup boiling water
10. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
11. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Wonderful cocoa powder. Shot by Hubby.

This is how the batter look like.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (which is 180°C) . Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.
2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl (don't forget to sift everything)
3. Add buttermilk, eggs, water, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (batter will be thin).
4. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake 15 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Remove cupcakes from pan. Cool completely.
7. Frost with VANILLA FROSTING or "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING.

(Makes 30 cupcakes)

Here are first batch of naked cupcakes, cooling down and waiting to be iced.

VANILLA FROSTING:

1. Beat 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 1/4 cup shortening and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
2. Add 1 cup powdered sugar; beat until creamy.
3. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, beating to spreading consistency.
4. About 2-1/3 cups.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

1. Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine (1 stick of butter in US terms is approx half a block of our local butter block, salted or unsalted butter is fine here)
2. Stir in 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa.
3. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 1/3 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract beating to spreading consistency.
4. About 2 cups frosting. (I reduced to about 2.5 cups of icing sugar and combined buttermilk and full cream milk here, in future I think I will stir in some strong coffee into the milk or go with Bailey's Irish Cream instead .... wonder how would that go down ... hehehe )

I did not make them 'black & white' as the original recipe suggests, I went with chocolate on chocolate all the way. That's the way hubby likes it; dark, rich, sweet and decadent.

So let's go to the results .... the cake itself was super soft, light, moist and seriously yummy! Not too sweet but absolutely perfect once you get the frosting going.

Here are the iced cupcakes.

I used a star icing tip and disposable piping bags I got from a bakery mart in D'sara Utama. I was so so super excited to do the icing, I've envied and coveted one too many images of beautiful cupcakes and I finally get to ice my own creations. I dotted a few of them with little shiny sugar balls for that festive touch! *syok sendiri*

Packing up some of the goodies for mum and Totoro. Thirty cuppas are helluva alot! Seriously.

On keeping them; I will refrigerate them the next day. Use an airtight container. Take them out for about 10 mins before you want to have them or they will be hard and cold. I normally keep them for about 4 days max in the fridge.

What's the best way to enjoy Shortcake's Hershey Cuppa Cakes? With freshly brewed coffee of course!