Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe is the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe adapted to use for chocolate cupcakes. The ingredient amounts in the recipe are the same as for the cake, but this recipe gives the reduced baking time for cupcakes. I also included a half recipe below, which is what I just made today for my twin sons' 8th birthday tomorrow. We aren't having a party this year and I didn't want a ton of cupcakes so a half recipe was perfect, in addition to the half recipe of vanilla cupcakes I made. I filled mine 3/4 full and made 12 cupcakes instead of 18. I also used Ghirardelli Cocoa instead of Hershey's. Note that these cupcakes may come out flat on top or may even sink in, but this didn't happen with mine since I filled them more than halfway.

I paired these with this Not-So-Sweet Whipped Frosting recipe that I've been making for a few years. I also mixed in some Freeze Dried Raspberry Powder to the frosting for some of them, which was delicious (shout out to my niece Emma for the idea)!

Hershey’s "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes

 

This chocolate cupcake recipe is easy to whip up in the kitchen and sure to please the crowd no matter how you celebrate birthdays, Easter gatherings and other fun get-togethers throughout the year. Bake moist chocolate cupcakes in the oven using HERSHEY’S cocoa or HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK cocoa if you prefer a more decadent cupcake flavor. Then, try creating homemade frosting to cover each cupcake. Life just got a lot sweeter with this simple chocolate cupcake recipe that will add more joy to your everyday snacking.

 

1¾ cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water

 

Heat oven to 350° F. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper or foil bake cups.

 

Stir together dry ingredients in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients except boiling water. Beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill muffin cups ½ full with batter.

 

Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Frost with chocolate frosting and garnish with sprinkles, if desired.

 

Makes 36 cupcakes.

Hershey’s "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes (Half Recipe)

 

This chocolate cupcake recipe is easy to whip up in the kitchen and sure to please the crowd no matter how you celebrate birthdays, Easter gatherings and other fun get-togethers throughout the year. Bake moist chocolate cupcakes in the oven using HERSHEY’S cocoa or HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK cocoa if you prefer a more decadent cupcake flavor. Then, try creating homemade frosting to cover each cupcake. Life just got a lot sweeter with this simple chocolate cupcake recipe that will add more joy to your everyday snacking.

 

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons unsifted all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons Hershey’s Cocoa

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

½ cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup boiling water

 

Heat oven to 350° F. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper or foil bake cups.

 

Stir together dry ingredients in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients except boiling water. Beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill muffin cups ½ full with batter.

 

Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Frost with chocolate frosting and garnish with sprinkles, if desired.

 

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Chocolate Ice Cream

The second recipe I made in my new ice cream maker is this Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. I don't usually care for chocolate ice cream but one of my sons has been asking me to make it. I made a chocolate recipe a few years ago and didn't like it (neither did my husband, so it wasn't just me!), so this morning I searched for a new one to try. I came across this recipe, which looked good. After reading through the comments, I discovered the mixture overflowed in most commenter's 1.5-qt. ice cream makers, which is the size I have. I also read that it helps make the ice cream less gritty if you sift the cocoa and sugars first. I used these two suggestions and adapted the amounts as best I could to come up with the recipe below, which we all loved! Everyone had a second helping, even me. I put some cut up fresh strawberries on top of mine which made it even better.

I used some half & half in place of some of the heavy whipping cream, but if you don't have it or don't want to use it, use 1 cup of whole milk and 2 cups of heavy whipping cream - or any combination of milk and cream to equal 3 cups.

I'm happy I found a chocolate recipe that tastes good and we can now use this as a base for other recipes (chocolate chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter, rocky road, etc.) or just have it as plain chocolate!

Chocolate Ice Cream

Adapted from Chew Out Loud Website

 

2/3 cup cocoa powder, good quality, unsweetened

¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

¼ to ½ cup white sugar

1 cup whole milk, very cold

1 cup half and half, very cold

1 cup heavy cream, very cold

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Sift the cocoa powder, brown sugar and white sugar together to enable a finer mix into the cold ingredients - it makes the ice cream taste less gritty.

 

In a chilled bowl, combine the sifted cocoa and both sugars, whisking to combine well. Add cold milk and whisk until the sugars are dissolved. Stir in cold heavy cream and vanilla. The colder everything is, the better.

 

Optional: Refrigerate mixture for at least 4-6 hours or overnight for better results (using a quart-sized mason jar works well to store this amount of mixture).

 

Pour mixture into the freezer bowl of ice cream maker. Let it run for 20-25 minutes, or until the mixture is thick, soft, and creamy. Churned ice cream should increase in volume, reaching the top of the machine's freezer bowl.

 

If adding something extra, mix for 15-20 minutes and then add 1/4 cup (or up to 1 cup):

·      Mini chocolate chips

·      Oreos

·      Snickers

·      Reese's cups

and mix for 5 more minutes.

 

Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours or until ice cream is desired consistency.

 

Prior to serving, let ice cream sit at room temp for a few minutes just to soften enough for easy scooping.

Stracciatella Ice Cream

Stracciatella gelato has always been my favorite flavor. Today I made Stracciatella ice cream for the first time. It is so easy and very delicious! I used my vanilla ice cream base, which I let chill in the fridge for a few hours before adding to the ice cream maker, but you don't have to do that. While it was in the ice cream maker, I melted a bar of 70% dark chocolate and let it cool a bit until the ice cream was almost finished (25 minutes in the ice cream maker). Then I used a small spatula to lightly drizzle the melted chocolate into the ice cream while the ice cream maker was still on. The melted chocolate freezes on impact with the ice cream and it breaks into shreds as the ice cream maker keeps churning it. I reserved a little bit of chocolate to drizzle on top of the ice cream container that I put in the freezer to make it look nice.

The ice cream was so good, and I don't know why I waited so long to make this! To me it tastes so much better than just adding chocolate chips to ice cream. This is not an official recipe and the steps are so easy but I just wanted to make note of what I did and what chocolate I used so I can remember the next time I want to make it. If you enjoy making your own ice cream, I highly recommend you give this a try with your favorite chocolate bar! This would taste good in other flavors of ice cream as well instead of vanilla (chocolate, strawberry, coffee, etc.), but this way is my favorite!

Hershey's 5-Minute Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake & Hershey's One-Bowl Buttercream Frosting

These two recipes have been used in my family for years. It's the only chocolate cake I've ever made, and also works well for cupcakes. The buttercream frosting is also delicious - if you want a double chocolate cake/frosting recipe, look no further! I oftentimes make this with a different frosting though because an all-chocolate cake is pretty rich.

A few things that I want to remind myself when making this (since I only bake 1 or 2 cakes a year and I always forget), if making two 9" rounds, the layers will be pretty thin. This cake looks better if it's made with thicker frosting, as opposed to cream cheese frosting that is also pretty thin. I prefer to make this cake in a 9x13 rectangular pan because then it is not such a thin cake. It's also a lot easier as it doesn't need removed from the pan!

I've made this with various frostings - chocolate buttercream (recipe below), vanilla buttercream, cream cheese, whipped cream frosting (and ricotta filling), whipped frosting (the recipe I just posted earlier today).

Below are a few photos from various times I've made this cake. It's always delicious!

Hershey’s 5-Minute Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake

1¾ cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water

 

Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Add remaining ingredients except boiling water; beat at medium speed 2 minutes.  Remove from mixer; stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

 

Pour into two greased and floured 9” or three 8” layer pans or one 13 x 9” pan.

 

Bake at 350˚ for 30-35 minutes for layers, 35-40 minutes for 13 x 9” pan, or until cake tester (inserted in center) comes out clean.

 

Cool 10 minutes on rack.  Remove from pans; cool completely.

 

Top with your favorite frosting.

 

 

Hershey’s One-Bowl Butter Cream Frosting

                                                           

6 Tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

Hershey’s Cocoa:

            1/3 cup for light flavor

            ½ cup for medium flavor

            ¾ cup for dark flavor

2 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

In small mixer bowl, cream butter.  Add cocoa and confectioner’s sugar alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed).  Blend in vanilla.

 

Make about 2 cups frosting.

9x13 Cake

Made with "Not-So-Sweet Whipped Frosting"

Made with Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

Batter in pans

Two 9" round cakes

Made with with Ricotta Filling

Made with with Ricotta Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting

Made with with Ricotta Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting

Made with with Ricotta Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting

Made with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes

Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

Last weekend my husband and I hosted a party for my cousins and their spouses, which we usually have at Christmastime, but for the first time this past year we could not have it. The dessert for our Christmas party is always homemade cookies, so we kept that tradition for our summer version of the party. A few people brought various kinds of cookies, and my sister Caterina made these delicious Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips. I had never made these before but decided to try them out today to bring on our upcoming beach vacation. My grandma always made tons of cookies to take on vacation, and the past few years I haven't had the time to make any, but that's a tradition I want to keep going so this year I made sure to set some time aside to bake before our trip.

I used Crisco instead of butter but otherwise followed the recipe. This cookie recipe is on the back of the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips bag, but that recipe is half of the amount of ingredients compared to the recipe that I found online, except that they both call for the same amount of peanut butter chips. So if you like a ton of peanut butter chips in your cookies, use two bags for the recipe below. I found one bag to be sufficient. I used a small cookie scoop and got 79 cookies out of this recipe.

I also recently purchased a KitchenAid Silicone Mixer Spatula that I used for the first time today, and I love it! It is the Aqua Sky color, which matches my mixer, but more importantly it is made specifically for use with the mixer bowl and scrapes batter from it so well. If you use a KitchenAid stand mixer often, I highly recommend this spatula. It would also make an excellent gift for the bakers in your life!

This recipe is very easy to make and doesn't take much time either. My husband and toddler taste-testers approved, and I'm sure your family and friends will too!

REESE'S Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

 

All the peanut butter chocolate bliss you can imagine made into an unbelievable cookie! Get your mixing bowl ready and stir together REESE’S peanut butter chips and HERSHEY’S cocoa for your new go-to cookie recipe. Eat these chewy chocolate peanut butter chip cookies straight out of the cookie tin or add a scoop of ice cream to the center of two cookies for an ice cream sandwich. Bake REESE’S chewy cookies for a special event or whenever you need a sweet dessert. You can’t go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate, right?

 

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1¼ cups butter or margarine (2½ sticks), softened or Crisco

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups REESE’S Peanut Butter Chips (10-oz. package)

 

 

Heat oven to 350°F. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.

 

Beat butter (or Crisco) and sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

 

Bake 8 to 9 minutes. (Do NOT over bake; cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

 

Makes about 54 cookies.

 

Pan Recipe: Spread batter in greased 15½ x 10½ x 1-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack; cut into bars. Makes about 4 dozen bars.

 

Ice Cream Sandwiches: Prepare "Chewy Chocolate Cookies" as directed; cool. Press small scoop of vanilla ice cream between flat sides of cookies. Wrap and freeze.

Waiting on cookies to cool off so he can taste them!

Red's Amazing M&M'S Cookies

I recently had my sister and a few cousins over for a movie/ice cream sundae night. Afterwards, I had a lot of sundae toppings left over. One of the toppings I had was a bag of Dark Chocolate M&M'S. I didn't want a bunch of candy sitting around, so I decided to make cookies with them. Luckily there was a recipe on the back of the bag so that's what I used. These cookies took no time to make and were a great snack!

Red’s Amazing M&M’S® Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1¾ cups M&M’S® Brand Dark Chocolate Candies

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars until well blended. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt together. Slowly add these ingredients into the butter mixture and stir until combined.

Fold in the M&M’s and chill the dough for 1 hour, or overnight.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a lightly greased tray, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8- 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12-14 minutes for crispy cookies. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate M&M'S

Butter & sugars

Add egg & vanilla

Add flour mixture

Stir in M&M'S

Right out of the oven!

Photos by JoJo

HERSHEY'S Perfect Special Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last week I saw some dark chocolate chocolate chips on sale, so I bought two bags. Sunday seems to be a good day to get baking done, so I decided to try the cookie recipe on the back of the bag. It took very little time to make these cookies, especially since I was only making one recipe which I usually don't do. Still, one recipe was more than enough cookies for me, even with freezing most of them. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten used to my oven quite yet, and one of the trays of cookies burned a little, but the rest were OK. The recipe was pretty good and the cookies made for a great afternoon snack!

HERSHEY'S Perfect Special Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips

1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Heat oven to 375°.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Butter, sugars, and vanilla

Add eggs

Add flour mixture

Stir in chocolate chips & nuts

Enjoy!

Photos by JoJo