Adventures in cupcake land - part 2

For my second cupcake adventure I decided on chocolate chip. Mmmmm.....

Yes - that's a real photo of MY cupcakes, not something I found online!

To make 12 large cupcakes (you'll need muffin sized paper cases for this one, or make 14-16 fairy cake sized ones).

For the cupcakes

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the frosting
125g butter, softened
200g icing sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons cocoa
A few drops of vanilla essence, optional
A splash of milk, if needed

Heat oven to 400F, 180C.
Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
Make a well in the centre.
Add vanilla essence, oil and most of the warm water.
Stir until moist. Add more water in needed to get consistency of thick batter.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Divide between 12 cake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Place on a wire rack to cool.

The frosting
This was a bit hit and miss and I kind of made it up as I went along. I wanted American style butter frosting and I got there in the end. All the quantities are approximate. Just make it up as you go along.

Beat softened butter with a wooden spoon till it's really soft and creamy.
Add cocoa powder and vanilla essence.
Add half the icing sugar and mix well till it's all combined.
Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well.
If mixture is too thick, add a very small splash of milk to loosen it up to spreadable consistency.
If mixture is too runny, add more icing sugar.
Spread a thick layer on each cupcake and make a cute swirl on top. (If you're clever you could pipe the frosting on, all posh like - I'm not that clever.)
I finished off with an indulgent sprinkle of maple sugar, just in case they weren't sickly ENOUGH.

Voila!