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. 
Jen, I totally love your blog. You always ahve the BEST treats! I LOVE the picture with all the cookies resting on the m&ms. GREAT idea! 🙂
Looks beautiful as always!
perfect use of pink! So interesting about how the cookies reacted to the way you rolled them! Thanks for the heads up!
Your cookies look great and that’s a good tip about getting them to look their best too. My kids and all their friends love these cookies. I’ve made them a few times since I first posted them and they never last long.
thanks for the link!
~ Michelle
Those are beautiful and perfect for such a great cause
What an adorable picture! Also helps that they are for a great cause! 🙂
M&Ms are my favorite treat and I love that during this month everything is PINK! The cookies look fantastic.
I am bummed I missed your Power of Pink contest as I was utilizing October to raise awareness around breast cancer too! I made some cookies and have a post on my site: http://katskitchenplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-is-breast-cancer-awareness.html
I like the chocolate cookie base of your cookies! Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to checking back and seeing all what people make towards your challenge 🙂
A chocolate cookie topped with chocolate candies? What could be better? Perhaps a tall, ice cold glass of milk to go with them! They look divine. I’m wondering if you might skip the rolling and flattening by creating a wide log of dough (without M&Ms), slicing to the thickness desired, then pressing candies on top? Seems like the dough might be fairly easy to shape into a log. A quick pop into the fridge before slicing would help firm it up. Just a thought! I can’t wait to try them.
Best,
Casey
http://www.tastestopping.wordpress.com
P.S. Not sure if I’ve invited you before, but I’d love to publish any of your photos that FoodGawker and TasteSpotting decline! Thanks. 😀
I love the dark chocolate and pink M&M contrast. What fantastic cookies:)
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I just made your recipe for these cookies yesterday and took them to church. The kids went nuts and they’ve never turned out as pretty as they did this time. Thanks for the helpful tips because my m&m cookies have never turned out prettier! 9 minutes was also perfect timing as well.
Both pretty and I’m sure delicious! I love how you showed the comparison between batches to give better suggestions for prettier cookies. The final batch are definitely the prettiest of the bunch. I love that the pink pops w/the chocolate cookie.