Celebrate the 4th of July with Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes!

 Happy 4th of July! A day to celebrate with family, friends, fireworks and delicious food. Summer barbeque's with all of the fixing's are a family tradition and in my family no party is complete without a cake or cupcakes made using the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe.

The recipe is quick easy, moist and delicious. And the frosting...it is my FAVORITE frosting EVER! In fact I always make extra because I like to eat copious amounts while I am frosting the cake/cupcakes. 

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Recipe from Hershey's

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Once the cupcakes are cooled frost with Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting.

Perfectly Chocolate Frosting

From Hershey's

Ingredients:

1 stick butter melted
2/3 cup of cocoa
1/3 cup of milk
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla

Melt butter in large bowl, whisk of use electric hand held mixer to bled in cocoa. Add one cup of powdered sugar, and a little milk, alternating between the two until both are used up and the frosting is creamy. Add vanilla and blend. Then use to frost any treat you feel like.

I hope you have a safe and happy celebration! Happy 4th of July!

4th of July Idea: Super Easy Brownies

Are you looking for an easy, "kicked" up brownie? Perusing Pinterest recently I came across this recipe from Pinch of Yum. It is SO Easy that even if you do not have the time or think you cannot bake you can handle this! These brownies would be a great addition to your 4th of July picnic, trip to watch the fireworks or around the campfire.

I love brownie batter! Brownies right out of the oven and brownies of any kind, especially at Summer picnics, but I do not like to have to make things from scratch all the time. This recipe is my answer.

A Ghirdelli box  brownie mix or your favorite box brownies with chocolate chips in the mix, and about 14 Oreos! You simply make the boxed mix using the instructions on the back of the box and add crushed Oreos, then pour into a prepared baking pan. Easy peasy!

The Oreo's melt into the batter for the most part, the chocolate chips stay soft and the whole thing is DELICIOUS! Lindsay at  Pinch of Yum makes these a little gooey in the middle, she cooks these about 25 minutes, I cooked mine about 30 minutes, and they were yummy.

Bake up a batch of these for your picnic! Enjoy your brownies and enjoy your day.