Marble cupcakes with mocha icing

This week I made these cupcakes with the kids I babysit for. We had a lot of fun swirling the chocolate and vanilla, talking about the difference between baking soda and baking powder (fail.), and eating copious amounts of batter. That being said, these cupcakes are a really fun recipe to bake with kids, as they are quick and easy and jazz up otherwise normal chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. It's like having your chocolate cake... and eating your vanilla cake too... hehe.

For the cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups milk

3 eggs

1 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 bars semisweet chocolate, melted

For the frosting:

3 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1-2 tablespoons brewed espresso

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a smaller bowl, mix butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and stir until mixed.

Separate the mixture in half. Add the melted chocolate to half of the mixture and stir until incorporated.

Line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers. Using an ice cream scoop, spoon the plain (not chocolate-y) half of the mixture into the cupcake molds. Then, over that batter, add the chocolate batter. Take a knife and stab it through each individual mold so that the mixture becomes swirly. Don't be afraid to really move the knife around-- it's harder than you'd think to overmix the two batters.

Cook for ~20 minutes, until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the cupcakes.

Meanwhile, in another large bowl, using a mixer, combine butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Once cupcakes are cool, frost! 

Basic vanilla cake recipe adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook