4th of July Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
We had two big cookouts to go to this holiday weekend. I wanted to use my star sprinkles and my flag cupcake liners so I needed a light colored cake and a dark frosting. I decided to take a vanilla cupcake and add chocolate chips to it. These cupcakes were really good. The cake was perfectly dense but still moist and crumbly.
The frosting really is to die for. By adding the hot cocoa mix, there is an extra creaminess to this frosting. Multiple people commented that it tasted like mousse. I couldn’t agree more. I even used some to dip my strawberries in to. WOW was that good. The frosting recipe did make a large batch. It frosted 24 cupcakes plus I have about 2 cups of frosting leftover. 
Chocolate Chip cupcakes – adapted from Vanilla cupcakes from Crazy Delicious – original recipe from Martha Stewart – makes 24
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips + 1 Tbsp flour (toss to coat chocolate chips)
Mix the dry ingredients
Add butter
Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla
Add wet ingredients 1/3 at a time to the dry ingredients
Stir in chocolate chips – be sure to coat the chips with flour so they don’t all sink to the bottom while baking
Bake for 17-22 minutes at 325 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean
Chocolate Frosting – from Joy The Baker
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup Ovaltine – I used Ghirardelli hot cocoa
Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick.
Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth.
In a 2 cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream. Mix until incorporated.
If you’d like a thinner consistency, add heavy cream a tablespoon at a time until you’re happy with the frosting.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
A week of Oreo recipes!? Oh my goodness. This fudge looks awesome. I love sweet things that include pretzels. Sweet/salty is so delish.
I’m excited for a week of Oreos! The combo of pretzels and Oreos in your fudge sounds amazing!!
Oh yum! We love Oreos too! I have an Oreo cake recipe on my blog (foudn at another) that I did for Mr.s Birthday one year. It’s oen of my top searched posts. =)
I love Oreos, too, but I rarely buy them unless it is for a recipe. This looks fantastic. I don’t like pretzels very much, but I guess the other ingredients mask the taste of pretzels that I don’t like. Thanks for this recipe!
I was just casually reading the beginning of this post, and then I scrolled down and saw the picture…OooooooMG! AMAZING! That looks like the most fantastic thing! Plus I love a salty/sweet combo, so this is right up my alley 🙂
This looks amazing! I like your idea of adding more salt. Did you see that there are pretzel M&Ms now? I bet it would be fun to sprinkle some of those on top!
Those sound amazing! I love a sweet and salty combo too… in fact I may or may not have kept picking at these ginormous chocolate and caramel covered pretzels on the dessert table at our family Mothers Day bbq yesterday. yum!
I will absolutely be checking back for the rest of the oreo recipes… I’m a huge fan 🙂
This fudge looks and sounds phenomenal. Salty, sweet, rich, chocolaty, creamy, crunchy. I want!
More salt? That recipe seems like a perfect candidate for using sea salt! 🙂
hey I just tried your recipe and and the bottom layer never set. Is there something I can do to prevent that?
My Husband shared a tasty post from The Kitchn with me on google reader and i discovered your blog. I spent all of vacation mornings going back and reading and tagging your recipe ideas. I am so inspired and can’t wait to get in the kitchen!!! My Husband can’t wait either!!