cheesy potato casserole: Celebration Cupcakes

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The original name of these cupcakes is “Milk Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes”, but I re-named them “Celebration Cupcakes” because you don’t have to have a birthday to enjoy these amazing cupcakes! And secondly, I renamed these to celebrate major accomplishments and milestones in my little family’s life.
Here’s what my little family is celebrating:

My return to blogging: I know, I know it’s been over a month since my last post…I have good excuses, I promise (like life being a little hectic while my hubby was away for 10 weeks, emergency eye surgery and a little complication with that, planning and re-planning our cross-country move {slowly learning the uncertainty of military life}, driving across country TWICE in a 3-week period, and unpacking, organizing and all that fun stuff that goes along with moving).
My husband graduating from OCS: My hubs started Officer Candidate School with the Marine Corps in January and graduated the end of March. I am SO proud of him and more importantly excited that our 10-week stint apart is now over! We’ll be in the Quantico, VA area while he attends TBS (The Basic School) until the end of the year, and we’re super excited to reconnect with old friends her in VA!

Curtis getting "pinned" by his dad and sister.

Curtis receiving his first salute as an officer in the Marine Corps!

Our cross-country move is FINALLY over: We knew our stay in Arizona was temporary, so we were almost always planning our move…we just didn’t know if would take almost 2 years for us to do so!
Mia’s 2^nd Birthday: She’ll officially turn 2 on Saturday. I still can not believe our amazing little girl is going to be 2!

My little cutie, Mia.

My blog will be moving: Sometime in the near future I will be making the switch from blogger to wordpress and I am doing the work all on my own! I figured to really learn the wordpress interface I might as well make the switch myself. I hope to have the new site up and running sometime in May, so stay tuned with more news on that front!

Cook’s Note: ***While making the chocolate buttercream for this recipe it is crucial that you melt the chocolate and let it cool to room temperature; if you don’t your frosting won’t come together and you’ll have a gloppy mess on your hands. Also note that once the melted and cooled chocolate is added to the frosting it will take a good 3-5 minutes with your mixer on medium-medium high speed for the mixture to come together—be patient and try not to freak out (like I did J), it will come together).

I get a lot of questions from readers about special kitchen equipment and specific ingredients I use in recipes. Here’s the specific equipment and ingredients I used in this recipe:
Nielsen-Massey pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract
4 Tablespoon Scoop (a.k.a. my favorite scoop ever!!!)
Pastry Tip Set
The Cupcake Diaries Cookbook
White Cupcake Liners
Jumbo Rainbow Nonpareils

These cupcakes are awesome! The frosting tastes just like fugde!

Celebration Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes Ingredients:

2 ½ C all-purpose flour
2 ½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
8 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¾ C sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 ¼ t pure vanilla extract
vanilla seeds from 1 vanilla bean
1 ¼ C whole milk, at room temperature

For the Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

2/3 C milk, at room temperature 5 C confectioners’ sugar
12 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 t pure vanilla extract
½ t salt
2 ½ C chocolate chips, melted and then cooled to room temperature***(see Cook’s Note)

Jumbo Rainbow Nonpareils (optional)

For the Cupcakes Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 standard cupcake tins with twelve baking papers each, set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes, or until light & fluffy and pale yellow in color (I used a stand mixer on medium speed and it took me about 3 minutes).

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

Add the vanilla and vanilla bean seeds to the milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by one third of the milk mixture, and mix thoroughly. Repeat. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by the last third of the milk, mixing slowly until well incorporated.

Scoop the batter into the cupcake pan using a 4-tabelspoon scoop and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting: Directions:

Combine the milk, confectioners’ sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt at high speed until light and airy, approximately 3-5 minutes. Slowly add the melted and cooled chocolate until well incorporated (this may take several minutes with the mixer on medium-medium high speed for the come together).

Frost cupcakes and top with jumbo rainbow nonpareils (optional).

Makes 24 cupcakes

Source: adapted from The Cupcake Diaries by the sister’s of DC Cupcake/Georgetown Cupcake, Katherine Kallinis & Sophie Kallinis LaMontague