Cupcake recipe

Here's a recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Icing.  I made these a while back and they got rave reviews, so I thought I would share the recipe for you to try.  Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the final result, so I looked for one online that looked similar, and so that is what you will see here.  It's not exact, but gives you some idea of what they will look like.  Enjoy! 

2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 standard cupcake pans with liners or coat with non-stick cooking spray. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, stir together the sugar, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla until blended.

2. In separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, and gradually add to the sugar mixture, until the mixture begins to come together.

3. Very slowly add the boiling water, and blend until the mixture is smooth and soupy.

4. Ladle the batter into the cupcake tins, filling ¾ full. Bake the cupcakes for 15 to 18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Cool the cupcakes in their pans on wire racks until cooled completely.

(Do-Ahead: At this point the cupcakes can be kept covered at room temperature up to 2 days or frozen for 6 weeks. Defrost and ice with the cinnamon butter cream frosting.)

Cinnamon Butter Cream Frosting

Makes enough to generously frost two 9-in. layers or 24 cupcakes

4 ½ cups confectioners sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 T vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
2 T milk
Chocolate curls or chocolate chips for garnishing cupcakes

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, stir the sugar to aerate it. Add the butter, vanilla, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of the milk, and beat on high speed until the frosting is spreading consistency. If the frosting is stiff, add a few more drops of milk, beating after each addition.

2. Frost the cooled cupcakes and garnish as desired.

P.S. If you try these, leave me a comment and let me know how they turned out!