Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

Sometimes, I just need a little chocolate to make the world not seem so scary. Sometimes, I get the urge to bake. Here's the consequence: massive death by chocolate cupcakes with homemade chocolate buttercream.

A couple months ago, I took a cake decorating class (Wilton's Decorating Basics Course) and our instructor gave us a couple of her own recipes at the end of the course. This is the first one I've tried out and it's not too shabby. In fact, it's quite delicious, but I really didn't expect much less considering the ingredients:

Death By Chocolate Cake
From the Kitchen of Ruth Hamamoto

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix (18.25oz)
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix  -- no size specified, so I used the smaller one, about 3 oz
1 1/2 cups chocolate milk (whole, not low fat)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 round cake pans (8 or 9 inch). On low speed of mixer, blend cake mix, dry pudding mix, choclate milk, eggs and oil until blended, about 1 minute. On medium-high speed, beat for 2 minutes. Divide batter among pans. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Turn out on cooking rack and cool completely.

This cake can be baked as a sheet cake, 9x13 inch.

Might I add, this may be the most delicious cake batter I have ever licked off the spatula. I ended up making 5 jumbo cupcakes and a double layer 6 inch round cake, which I will share tomorrow. I made Wilton's Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and topped them with a few sprinkles. Oh, did I mention there is a little vanilla pudding filling in the middle?