Tada! I’m alive! Target stole my soul for the holiday season, but now that my hours are cut (and really no clue how I’m going to pay the bills), I have some more time in the kitchen. Slowly my cooking spirit is coming back, but eh we’ll see.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Mine was pretty decent. I got a kitchen pantry to store all my junk, so now my counters are not cluttered with the bread maker, George Foreman grill, and random pans. I also got Julie Hasson’s 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, which I have had on my wish list since forever. Can’t believe my parents actually spent $20 on it though, but it’s super duper hard to find it used.




I decided to make cupcakes the other night bc I have so many cupcake liners. Christmas may have passed, but I do have winter ones I got on clearance last year, AND they come with matching toppers. I chose Julie’s Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes bc I love love LOVE marshmallows! As you can see, some of them peek out after you cut out the middle. You’re supposed to let them melt a little and squish the top down, but I was too tired to stand and wait for that. I opted to just cover the tops with frosting lol

I had trouble frosting them. Since I ran out of pastry bags, I used sandwich bags. Normally this is fine, but I guess I filled the bags too much, and two bags ripped open. Fortunately, my bff bought me this cake decorating press thing (think cookie press but with icing tips) so after making a huge mess and wasting some of the icing, I managed to finally frost them. And let me tell you, this frosting is cupcakelicious!! So what if my sprinkles don’t match? They taste pretty good to me!


Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes



1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp chocolate cream liquer OR chocolate syrup
12 large marshmallows OR handful of mini ones

Chocolate Fudge Frosting
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter or baking margarine, room temp
2 tbsp chocolate cream liquer OR milk
1 tbsp coffee OR milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with 12 liners. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. In another bowl, beat together sugar and oil until well combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and chocolate. Alternately beat in dry mix and buttermilk. Beat in chocolate syrup.

3. Scoop into liners. Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops spring back and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan. While cupcakes are still hot, cut out the middle of each. Insert a marshmallow. If they stick up, try squishing them down while they soften from the heat. If that doesn’t work, you can cover it with frosting. Or just use a handful of mini marshmallows.

4. Frosting: Beat all frosting ingredients together until smooth. Frost cupcakes after they are completely cooled.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Source: 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson, 2005 p.28