Choolate Cupcakes from Scratch

The best part of any party is the cake, especially when it comes to a birthday!  So when a friend of mine (and Roman's girlfriend) recently had a birthday I decided I wanted to give her a dozen cupcakes.  Of course they had to be chocolate because who doesn't want chocolate on their "29th & holding" birthday?

I quickly ran into a problem when I realized all my gooey chocolate cupcake recipes required ingredients I didn't have at home.  I didn't have time to run out to the store, so I headed to Pinterest.  After hunting through the recipes I finally decided on this one.  Unfortunately I didn't pin it so I can't even give credit to the baking genius that came up with it!  This scratch made recipe produces a moist, fudgey cupcake that will please every chocolate lover!

Chocolate Cupcakes from Scratch
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup flour
1/2t baking soda
3/4t baking powder
1/4t salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
2t vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk*

*If you don't have buttermilk simply add 1/2T of vinegar to 1/2 cup milk and let it stand for 5 minutes; until it starts to thicken a bit.

Preheat oven to 350°.  In a large bowl stir together, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl beat eggs and mix in sugar, brown sugar, oil and vanilla until well combined.  Stir half of the wet ingredients into the dry then mix in half the buttermilk.  Add the second half of the wet ingredients and then the remaining buttermilk; mixing until just combined.  Fill the muffin tins 1/2 full with batter and bake at 350° for 18-19 minutes.

I topped the cupcakes with my go to buttercream frosting and some silver nonpareils that I found in my baking cupboard.  Roman was very excited to deliver the cupcakes to one of his favorite people in the whole world.  Unfortunately he got a little too excited and smashed one of the cupcakes, or maybe he was just trying to put his own special touch on them?  Also, please don't judge me on the re-purposed delivery box...