Slightly Chocolatey Cupcakes with Baileys Whipped Cream

I hate this summer. I'll spare you the details behind my proclamation of hate. They're grisly and, honestly, quite dull.
What I don't hate, though, is my recently gifted KitchenAid mixer. It is a goddess in the kitchen and.. well.. you know the rest *wink*. I've found that baking is probably the one thing that manages to clear my mind from everything else no matter what. And it's a great activity with which to kill boredom late at night; it puts me straight to sleep after! My point is..: I've been doing some baking this summer. 
Alright. Intro over with. Here are the cupcakes I made last night:

Isn't it splendid? Nevermind the "Cars" wrapper. I seriously need to get some plain cupcake liners.
As you can tell, I'm quite proud of the result. But I probably really shouldn't be since they're hardly original recipes, as you'll see in a second. 


Slightly Chocolatey Cupcake Recipe:
   I based this off the vanilla cupcake recipe used by the famous Magnolia Bakery. It's the recipe that threw me on a bit of a cupcake craze, and I'm dying to go to Magnolia and try the real thing hopefully some day soon. I made only a couple of changes to the recipe other than adding the chocolateyness. I don't much like having to buy self-rising flour apart from regular flour, so I looked up the conversion using baking powder. Also, I like to use salted butter rather than unsalted butter. I feel it's a bit more tasty and less likely to be unbearably sweet. If you want the original vanilla cupcake recipe from Magnolia, the Food Network website has it here. And finally, the recipe I used for the aforepictured beauty:


Makes 24 cupcakes

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa (or other unsweetened cocoa powder)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line 2 tins with cupcake papers
3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
7. Using  a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
8. Cool the cupcakes in tin for 15 minutes. Remove from tins and let cool completely before icing.
    

Baileys Whipped Cream Recipe:
   This recipe is straight from the Cupcake Project. If this kind of post interests you, you should definitely go check out her wonderful blog. I'm still going to reproduce the recipe here for convenience, though. This Baileys whipped cream is absolutely perfect, and I'm sure it can be used on many things other than cupcakes. The recipe makes enough for a dozen cupcakes, so make sure you double it if you want to use this whipped cream on all the Slightly Chocolatey cupcakes!


Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

1. Whip cream until it looks like whipped cream. (To do this, increase the speed of the beater until it is close to forming soft peaks, then decrease speed slightly until it has reached that point)
2. Mix in sugar and Baileys until just combined.

Make sure you really top on the cream! These are also great filled with a bit of nutella (but, really, what isn't?). Enjoy!