Jacob and Ashley

While I was in Utah, along with shopping and other excursions, we did a lot of eating. We stopped at Les Madeleines (twice actually) for lunch, a few new cafes in Midway and of course a trip to Utah wouldn't be complete without a stop to Cafe Rio. But my favorite was So Cupcake that I heard about here , so when my sister Kelli mentioned that she had visited the bakery a few weeks earlier with a friend, we all enthusiastically decided to try it out. So, three pregnant women and my mom sat down with a dozen mini cupcakes and went to work trying as many flavors as we could, including lemon drop, smore, chocolate fudge sunday, red velvet, carrot cake, pumpkin chocolate chip, banana cream pie, and many other delectables.

Have I told you how good I have been with eating since I've been pregnant? But that one stop at So Cupcake spiked my desire for sweets, so this past Monday I was inspired to make my own little cupcakes and deliver them to some family members whose birthdays I missed while I was gone (not without trying a few though). I decided to go with a chocolate cupcake, the recipe I found on Martha Stewart, which was particularly fudgy and delicious and a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, which I found on this cupcake lovers blog.

Chocolate Cupcakes

3/4 cup unsweetend cocoa
3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Sift the dry ingredients together. Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Alternately add the dry ingredients and sour cream, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Spoon into cupcake pans (3/4 full for regular cupcakes and almost completely full for mini cupcakes). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (10-13 minutes for minis)

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz. cream cheese, at room temp.

1/2 stick butter, at room temp.

4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar

seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add vanillas and beat. Add the extra cup of sugar if desired. Spoon frosting into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes.

Enjoy!