How it all started.

I remembered I used to enjoy baking as a kid. Yea, when I was like 12? My friends would come over and we'll start doing like brownies, cookies or whatever. Then there was no news for the next I-can't-remember-how-many years. No, I wasn't being lazy. I just didn't want to do it. Okays, I was lazy.. heck. I did try to bake some random stuff like once or twice after I started working though. Which, would normally turn out too sweet (again I say I'm not a sweet tooth, totally), or so hard they can kill. Haa! I sort of concluded I'm not baking/cooking material and gave up altogether.

Until beginning of this year, in February. Out of boredom, I googled for cupcake blogs. For what exact reason I can't recall now, but yea.. was cupcake blogs. And the one blog that really caught my attention was Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit. (Okays, I hope I'm linking it right. I know nuts about linking pages!) The obvious reason will be those beautiful pictures of her cupcakes, one would say (and I totally agree). But it was those special, out of the norm ingredients she used for her cupcakes that really intrigued me. While it is still not a common scene for cupcake bakeries/shops popping all over Singapore unlike the States, the cupcakes you find here are mostly basic vanilla or chocolate cakes with plentiful of those I-see-that-diabetes-coming kind of frosting. Who would think of adding spices into those little cakes? And her frostings are mostly cream cheese frostings. Which, like what she mentioned, are more adult. And I like.

So, as much as I wanted to be adventurous and try her interesting recipes, I went for the, I would say, easiest and simpliest old fashioned chocolate cake recipe for a start. And they turned out well! Uber rich chocolatey taste, soft and fluffy (it's so fluffy its killin' me!) and melts in your mouth, I'm serious! And of course, it has now become my No. 1 chocolate cupcake recipe, and the go-to recipe each time I feel like baking some chocolate little ones. What's even better, they're always gone before you even know it each time I bring them to work. They're that gooooooood!

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit
14 regular cupcakes / 375 degree oven


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.

4. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.

5. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine

6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

7. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Here's a soccer ball version I did during the World Cup season. The decorations may suck, but.. the goodness underneath those frostings is....*salivating*. No, I'm no sweet tooth!