White Chocolate Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

We're always joking in the POWER forum that we're going to get a commune one day. We'll all live right there together happily ever after, and between all the skills we all possess, we probably won't ever want for anything.  We have quilters, chefs, bakers, writers, comedians, mommas, kids, husbands, organizers, farmers, and cheerleaders. We have it all!





For my part, I'm the baker. I cook, write, organize, and cheer lead also. But primarily, if it's full fat and mega yummy, chances are good it came from me and my very southern love of butter.

White Chocolate Cupcake with Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting. Guaranteed to fix your chocolate craving!

 Like these cupcakes. The recipe is from the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. If you don't have this one in your library and you EVER have to bake a cake, you want it. Also, once you get it and start using it, you will NEVER purchase another bakery cake again. Thery're just not any good.



Here's the basic recipe. And I hope against all hope that I don't get in trouble for releasing it. But her cupcakes are sooo good!


Cake Mix Doctor Cupcakes:

That's kidlet handing me my apron, which I promptly moved out of the way and forgot to put on!

1 1/4 cup whole milk (I used 2%, but she cautions to use whole milk very strenuously.)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract (do us both a favor here and buy the real thing. Imitation vanilla should be illegal as far as I'm concerned. I wish I still had some of the Mexican Vanilla I had a few years back. It had spices like cinnamon and nutmeg in it. Would have taken these already fanflippentastic cupcakes and made them something...  well, something out of this world.)
1 regular size package of instant pudding. (The flavor is your choice. I used white chocolate pudding here.)


Preheat the oven to 350. 

I start with my wet ingredients in the mixing bowl. 

Dumping the cake mix into the wet ingredients! Don't forget to add the pudding mix at this point, too!

Then add in the cake mix and the pudding mix and mix until well incorporated.

Your batter will be thick.  I made cupcakes. You could use regular cake pans. Just make sure to butter and flour them before you put the cake batter in. We prefer cupcakes. They're perfect serving sizes and we don't have to think about it. We can just grab one and go!

 

I have a normal size cupcake pan and use regular size paper liners. I have found that using a 1/4 cup measure and then scraping it with a spoon fills the cupcake liners to exactly the right depth. It lets my cupcakes bake right to the top of the liner with out overflowing. I was using my 1/3 cup measure here and you'll see that several of my cupcakes baked over. It doesn't make them less edible; it just makes them less...  pretty. :D

Bake in the preheated oven at 350 for 21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. You don't want to overbake them because they will be tough and dry. But you do want to bake them completely. Cupcake batter is yummy, but it won't hold up to eating on the couch very well.

I bought this over the summer right in the grocery store. It makes frosting cupcakes a no-brainer. Have you ever watched Cupcake Wars and seen them make those perfect dollops of frosting? This will let *you* do that at home. It was $13. Go get it. Go ahead! I'll wait.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting


1 stick butter, room temp
1 8oz package cream cheese, room temp
1.2 cup cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla
3 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Cream the sugar and cocoa powder. 

Add the vanilla and cream cheese and blend together very well. 

Add powdered sugar in rounds. I add 3/4 cup and blend well. Then I add 1 cup at a time until all the sugar has been added.

I always make my frosting while my cupcakes are cooling. Cupcakes are easy to cool! Just dump them out of the pans, line a plate or cookie sheet with them, and stick the whole thing in the freezer. By the time your frosting is ready, your cupcakes will be ready to be frosted!

Now, if you went and bought that frosting gun, let me give you a HUGE HINT. Fill a zipper bag with the frosting, cut a VERY SMALL corner off and use that bag to load the gun. Otherwise, you get frosting everywhere trying to gt it loaded and you'll lose interest.

Then just frost your cupcakes.

This mix made exactly 2 dozen cupcakes. The frosting recipe was just perfect for frosting 2 dozen cupcakes. Match made in heaven?  I should think so!




A very special thank you to my Kidlet and Hubbs for helping me gather ingredients, load and unload the dishwasher, and take pictures of me doing the baking. I couldn't have done it without you guys!