Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes

These are hands down THE best chocolate cupcakes I've ever made. Leave it to Hershey's to have the best chocolate cupcake recipe - they are the experts of all things chocolate! I ending up freezing half of this batch and eating them straight from the freezer a couple weeks later. If you can manage not to eat all of them and freeze some then I would definitely do this because they were heavenly right out of the freezer.

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa powder - If you don't have Hershey;s cocoa powder that's totally fine. Just use whatever cocoa you have on hand - it won't make a huge difference. This is just a recipe from the Hershey's company so obviously they're going to plug their own product!

1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place the rack in centre of the oven. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. There will be enough batter for approx. 24 cupcakes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Stir in the boiling water until well combined. The batter will be thin. Evenly fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4 full with the batter. 

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan onto wire racks to cool completely. Make sure the cupcakes have completely cooled before frosting them.

Chocolate Icing Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups icing sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

In a saucepan or microwave, melt the butter. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the cocoa and vanilla. Alternately add in the icing sugar and milk, beating with an electric mixer until the icing is a stiff and spreadable consistency. Add small amounts of milk or icing sugar to reach the desired consistency. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired. 

*Recipe from Hershey's