All “Stars” Chocolate Cupcakes

Every Monday Reece comes home with his graded sight word test and each week he scores 10 out of 10. I give him a hug, tell him what a great job he did and that’s that. I thought this week I would surprise him with something special to show him how very proud of him I am. 

I decided to make cupcakes but I wanted them to be really special for Reece. I thought it would be fun to make chocolate star-shaped molds and put them on top of each cupcake since he gets stars on his tests. And then I thought of piping on his actual sight test words – so fun right?


So obviously, since these cupcakes were going to be so awesome, I needed a super-cool frosting to go along with them. Enter Kraft’s new Cool Whip Frosting! You can find this amazingly luscious and creamy frosting right in the freezer section. Bryce and I headed to Walmart to do some shopping and I was super stoked to see that the frosting came in both chocolate and vanilla! Of course I had to pick up one of each. {That was a mistake. I should have picked up two of each – my boys were spooning leftovers straight into their eager little mouths!}

After Bryce and I returned from our shopping trip, I got going on the star molds. They are really very simple. I used melted semi-sweet chocolate and Wilton white candy melts to make the star-shaped molds. Melt the candy melts according to the package instructions and pour or spoon carefully into the mold. Throw them in the freezer for five minutes and pop out. Refrigerate until you need to use them. Use the same method for the chocolate stars. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and melted them in thirty second intervals, stirring in between.

After they firmed up, I piped on {obviously I need some work in this area} his sight words from his last test:

Next it was time to bake the cupcakes! I used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe…

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All Stars Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes for the All-Star in your life!!

Course Cupcakes, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword all stars chocolate cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 24 cupcakes

Calories 178kcal

Author Trish - Mom On Timeout

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 3 eggs room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325F.
• Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
• Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
• Add to the butter and sugar mixture alternating with the milk. {I do 1/2 cup of milk, about 1/3 of the flour mixture, and then repeat twice more.} Beat well after each addition.
• Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Let the cupcakes cool and then split in half with a serrated knife.
• Pipe frosting {or spread with a knife} onto the lower half and place top half of cupcake back on. Frost the top of the cupcake and then place the stars in the frosting.

Nutrition

Calories: 178kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 167mg | Potassium: 87mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 231IU | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 1mg

This recipe is just delicious and the frosting really takes it over the top! I just know you’re going to fall in love with Cool Whip Frosting just like I did!

Reece was so surprised and so excited to give these cupcakes a try. He asked me why they were for him and I said, “Because you always try your very best, every single day, and that makes me very proud of you!”

He wanted to know if he had to say each word in order to eat the cupcakes…

I love that Cool Whip Frosting is made with real milk and butter and it’s a lot better for you than the other stuff 🙂  It’s a great product to have on hand because you can store it in your freezer and then pull it out when you need it.