Chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate milk frosting

I've been busy making lots of cupcakes for the end of June birthdays. There is at least one birthday a week for the next few weeks, so I'll have lots of chances to try out some new recipes.

First was Jorge's birthday celebration. He's a total chocoholic, so I knew I had to dial up the chocolate for him. For his cupcakes, I made chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with a chocolate milk frosting.

I'm a big fan of using a boxed cake mix and then just doctoring it up. It just makes it all a little easier. For these chocolate cupcakes, I used a triple chocolate fudge cake mix. After filling the cupcake liners, I dropped in some semi-sweet chocolate chips for even more chocolate.

 

Frosting, on the other hand, is one thing that I like to make it from scratch. I wanted to try my hand at a chocolate buttercream, and I gave this recipe from Joy the Baker a whirl. I loved the addition of the Ovaltine, plus I also added a touch of espresso to bring out more of the chocolate flavor.

The birthday celebration wouldn't have been completed without some decorations. Jorge's love of all things Pixar made it an easy to choose a theme. After I figured out the theme with another friend, we got ot the printing. All of his office was covered with Pixar characters.

 

Here are the cupcakes right before we sang happy birthday. I also added some paper straw decorations to play up the chocolate milk angle of the cupcakes.

 

The birthday boy was so happy to see his chocolate cupcakes. He's always complaining that we only get vanilla cakes for the birthday celebrations, so he was loving all of the chocolate.

Needless to say, the chocolate milk buttercream will be a great addition to my frosting recipes. I can't wait to try it with a chocolate chip cookie cupcake.

Have you baked anything lately?