Chocolate Chip Yellow Cake Cupcakes With Chocolate Frosting

I'd been searching for a from-scratch yellow cake recipe and stumbled upon this one at Smitten Kitchen. I altered it slightly, so check the link for the original.

This recipe delivers a moist yellow cake, as promised. The frosting is the Hershey's cocoa back-of-the-box recipe I have always relied on with slightly more milk. The substitution of milk and lemon juice for buttermilk gives the cupcakes a hint of citrus, which I wouldn't mind pumping up for full on lemon cupcakes in the future. As always, do not over mix.

Chocolate Chip Yellow Cake Cupcakes


yields approximately 24 cupcakes or 12 large cupcakes


1C minus 1 T  milk

1 T  lemon juice

2 C  cake flour                                

1 tsp  baking powder    
3/4 tsp  baking soda    
1/4 tsp  salt              
1/2 C (1 stick)  salted butter, softened
1 C  sugar            
2  eggs, room temperature
1 tsp  vanilla extract                                        
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)                        

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C).
2. Mix milk and lemon juice in a cup and set aside for 10 minutes to curdle.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. Whisk together butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
5. Whisk vanilla into butter-sugar mix until fluffy.
6. Whisk in eggs, one at a time.
7. Alternately fold in curdled milk and dry mix in 3 additions, ending with the last of the dry mix and chocolate chips. Fold until just blended.
8. Spoon batter into lined cupcake tins (fill cups about 2/3 full).
9. Bake 16-20 minutes (test for doneness with a toothpick; if you stab a cake and it comes out clean, it's done).
10. Remove from tins and cool on rack.

Simple Chocolate Frosting

yields approximately 1 C of frosting

1/4 C (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1/3 C  cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 1/2 C  powdered sugar
3 T  milk, more as needed
1/2 tsp  vanilla extract

1. Whisk butter and cocoa together.
2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, whisking thoroughly and ending with a milk addition.
3. Whisk in vanilla.

Frosting tip: Plop about a tablespoon of frosting on top of a cupcake and push it around the surface of the cake with the smooth edge of a butter knife. Once the entire top is coated, pull the knife toward the center and gently pull up and away to get a sweet little soft-serve-ice-cream-esque peak on top.