Chocolate Cupcakes

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here...but I thought this warranted a post. Today at my work we had a cupcake competition..."The Ultimate Cupcake Warrior" We literally had over 100 cupcakes! This was my first attempt at a new chocolate cupcake recipe and it was really good...the cupcakes were moist and fluffy! Check out the pics of my cupcakes, the other entries, and the judges deliberating! I didn't win...but I was the only gluten free one...at least mine were unique! :-)

I used Martha Stewarts Snowman Cupcake idea, which you can find [HERE] and below is the chocolate cupcake recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 package Bob's Red Mill gluten-free chocolate cake mix
2/3 cup applesauce (you can make you own, if you wish)
1/3 cup milk (this works with soy or rice milk too)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (apple cider vinegar works too)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup hot water (110°)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preparing for baking. Preheat the oven to 350°. Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners.

2. Making the batter. In the bowl of the stand mixer, start beating the butter until it is creamy. Add the cake mix, the applesauce, the milk, the lemon juice, and the eggs. Beat at low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down the sides when necessary. Raise the speed to low-medium and let it run for another moment. Add the hot water and the vanilla extract. Run the mixer for one more minute, scraping down the sides.

3. Baking the cupcakes. Carefully spoon the cupcake batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the cupcakes. (In our oven, the regular-sized cupcakes took 17 minutes, the jumbo ones 20 minutes.) Allow them to cool in the cupcake tin for 10 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and let them sit for another 20 minutes before eating.