Devil's Food Cupcakes

I've never had great luck with homemade cake recipes. They always end up being kind of dry and just not as flavorful as boxed cake mix. That's kind of a shame since I like to make things from scratch, so this week I picked out a devil's food cake to try. I figured a recipe with sour cream would help it to stay moist. I opted for cupcakes because obviously they are the most fun to decorate.

This recipe is credited to Mrs. K Aamold and comes from the Aal Church Cookbook (1872-1972).

Sour Cream Devil's Food Cake

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup hot water mixed with 1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla

Bake in 350° oven in a 9x13 inch pan.

I haven't included the frosting recipe here because it doesn't come from a church cookbook. I actually found it among my mom's handwritten recipes from friends and family. This particular one came from a friend in Luverne, MN and its originator wrote "DO NOT SHARE" on it. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for sacred recipe oaths, but I'm not willing to risk it today. 35 years may not be enough!

Anyway, the sour cream does indeed keep the cake from drying out. Frosting always makes a big difference and I didn't add enough flavor to mine, so as a whole, these cupcakes were not as great as they should have been. Still, this is a solid chocolate cake recipe. If you wanted these to stand on their own without frosting, you could throw some chocolate chips in the batter. Just call it a muffin and you shouldn't have any qualms about eating it for breakfast the next morning.

Final rating: 3.5/5 super worth risking salmonella to lick the beaters