Adventures in Baking #1: Scrumptious Chocolate Cupcakes

Today I made some chocolate cupcakes for a friend's birthday using my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe...

Super-yummy Chocolate Cupcakes:
Makes about 32 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, separated
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
• 3 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 1 tbs. and 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1. Put the cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp. baking soda into a bowl. Microwave the water until hot and pour into cocoa powder mixture. Mix until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda and salt.
3. Put butter and sugar into a saucepan and melt. Make sure to mix it a lot so that the sugar doesn't burn! After it is melted, put this mixture into a giant mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 5-10 minutes, until cooled. Add eggs, one at a time; then add vanilla and finally cocoa mixture. Reduce the speed of the mixture to slow, and add 1/2 of the flour mixture. Mix well, then add the yogurt. After that is all mixed, add the rest of the flour and mix.
4. Preheat oven to 350° and line cupcake tins with liners. Fill cups 3/4 way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean), frost with frosting, add some cuteness and enjoy! :-)