Happy Giant Cupcake Day!

I have mixed feelings about Valentine's Day. On one hand, I hate the over-commercialized, red and pink, PDA-filled, let's post seventeen pictures on Facebook of the flowers and chocolate that my SUPER THOUGHTFUL AND BEST BOYFRIEND EVER got me aspect. On the other hand, chocolate goes on sale tomorrow.

So it's a love-hate relationship.

And single girls around the globe will be partaking in Gal-entine's Day parties, watching sappy romantic movies, eating pints of ice cream, and venting about how today is stupid. There may be tears. There will definitely be sighs and sarcasm.

I don't actually plan on drunk texting. Don't worry.

As for me? Well, I don't take it too seriously. And I'm actually pretty content right now. Life is good. But I'm still quite happy to partake in the movies and ice cream part. Obviously.

I'll also be eating the giant cupcake I baked. I might even share it with the roomies. How's that for generous?

It's a basic chocolate cake recipe with the best frosting ever. Here's how you make it: 

Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot coffee

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 (176 C) degrees. Grease the giant cupcake mold that your awesome flatmate got you for Christmas (or just two 9-inch baking pans, whatever), and set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

Add eggs, buttermilk*, melted butter and vanilla extract. The batter will be thick. 

Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in hot coffee. (If you don't like coffee, don't worry. It won't taste like it!)

Pour batter into molds (or pans) and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Turn out onto wire racks and cool completely before frosting.

*If you don't have that cup of buttermilk on hand, you can make some by adding a tbsp of lemon juice to just under a cup of milk. Let stand for a few minutes, and you're good to go! Or, you could just use regular milk if you don't have lemon juice. 
No biggie.

"That's the best frosting I've ever tasted!"

 (from MissyDew at Tasty Kitchen)

Okay. I need you to promise me that you won't be freaked out by the fact that this is made with flour. It's amazing. 
Just go with it.

Ingredients

5 tbsp all purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar (granulated, not powdered/icing sugar!)

Directions

In a small saucepan, whisk flour and milk together. Heat, stirring constantly, till it gets about as thick as a brownie mix. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (It's got to be completely cool before you use it in the next step.) Stir in vanilla.

Cream butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy -- get all the graininess from the sugar out. Then add the cooled mixture, and beat it till it's all combined and looks like whipped cream. It will be really light and fluffy.

Then, (and this is important) grab a big spoon and dig in. You know, reward yourself for all that hard work. Then frost that giant cupcake (or regular cake) with this gloriousness, and prepare to have a bunch of new friends. They'll love you forever.

(You can't really tell, but this baby's about the size of my face.)

I can't tell you how wonderful this frosting is. You just have to try it.

Happy Valentine's Day.