This is one of my favorite recipes I have ever made (I have made it quite a few times.)! I invited one of my friends over last Saturday and we got bored and decided to make some cupcakes! After looking through a lot of recipes we decided on the one we always use. Cupcakeproject.com put out this delicious recipe, and the frosting is by delish.com. I was having some trouble trying to decide what recipe I should do next, so thank you kittycat8 for recommending that I should do cupcakes! 

 Ingredients for cupcakes: 

• ¼ cup of unsalted butter (room temperature). 
• 1 cup of sugar. 
• 2 ounces of chocolate (Milk, dark or semi-sweet only! No white chocolate!). 
• 2 large eggs (room temperature). 
• 2 large egg yolks (room temp). 
• 9 tbsp of vegetable oil (this is the same as ½ cup plus 1 tbsp). 
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract. 
• 1/3 cup of full-fat sour cream (this ingredient helps keep the cupcakes moist, they do not taste like sour cream!). 
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour. 
• ½ tsp of salt. 
• ½ tsp of baking soda. 
• ½ cup of cocoa powder (natural or dutched will both work with this recipe). 
• ½ cup of water (room temperature). 

For the Buttercream: 

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened. 
• 4 cups of powdered sugar. 
• 1 tsp of mint extract. 
• 5 tbsp of heavy cream. 
• (Optional) green food coloring. 

 Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar until fully combined. The end result should look like wet sand. 
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. 
4. Once the melted chocolate is cool enough to touch, add it to the butter sugar mixture and mix until just combined. 
5. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until just combined. 
6. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined. 
7. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a separate bowl. Use a fork or a whisk to ensure that the ingredients are mixed well after sifting. 
8. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined after each addition. 
9. Mix in water. 
10. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and put in oven. 
11. Bake for 18 minutes, check with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, they are done. 
12. Immediately remove cupcakes from cupcake tin and let cool. 
13. To make the frosting mix butter and powdered sugar first, then add heavy cream. When you like the consistency of the frosting (optional) add food coloring. 
14. (Optional) use a cupcake corer and fill the cupcake with the frosting. 
15. When they are cool frost the top of the cupcakes.