Lil Duke's

Ok, the Superbowl is over and I'm convinced that my cupcakes had something to do with it! I'm super stoked that there was some excitement to the game and that the second half was great. Good job, Cardinals. You gave us a good little scare.

Now that it's all over I promised to post the recipe for my cupcakes. After eating quite a few and twisting my friends arms to try them as well, I'm convinced that I have yet to master the perfect vanilla cupcake. With that said, the chocolate cupcakes I affectionately call Lil Duke's were quite tasty.

My favorite part of sharing these cupcakes is watching people's faces after I explain what's in them. For many of you baker's out there you know that unconventional ingredients work great in sweet baked goods i.e. vinegar, sauerkraut, sour cream and mayonnaise. So these little tasty treats use the ladder: Duke's mayonnaise. I suppose you could use any kind of mayonnaise you'd like, I'm just partial Duke's and they make a perfect 1 cup size that's freakishly cute and all that I needed for the recipe.

Lil Duke's
(adapted from the recipe for Chocalate Mayonnaise Cupcakes from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey)

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup-3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup superfine sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup Duke's mayonnaise (Not Low Fat)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cup boiling water

preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a seperate bowl combine the sugar and eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla just until combined. Beat in half of the flour mixture and then scrape the sides of the bowl . Add half of the boiling water and beat slowly until batter is smooth. Add remaining flour and beat until combined. Beat in the remaining water. The batter will look more thin than you are used to.

Divide amongst your cupcake liners and only fill 2/3 full. Bake 18-22 minutes until a tooth pick insterted comes out clean.

Top with the most AMAZING chocolate frosting that ever existed. The trick to this frosting is rich chocolate Ovaltine please. I know, that mystery powder you didn't think actually existed, well it does. Although I would never have bought it if I didn't know it would taste delicious. I got this recipe from Joy the Baker.....you can find it here Joy The Baker.