Happy March everyone! It’s been a busy couple weeks and I’ve been working hard on my stories for Other than Ramen, my college cooking blog. Click here to read my latest posts!

As far as baking goes, yesterday I made one of my all time favorite dessert recipes ever. Chocolate Chip Pudding Cupcakes. Don’t they just sound divine?

The best part of these moist, chocolately, but not too rich, cupcakes is that the recipe is “semi-homemade.” That means it uses a store-bought cake mix base jazzed up with special additions. Topped with Cream Cheese frosting, these cupcake are truly magical.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cupcakes

(Adapted from allrecipes.com’s Chocolate Pudding Fudge Cake)

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour cake pan or place cupcake tins into muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, oil, water and eggs. Beat for 4 minutes, then mix in 2 cups chocolate chips. (Tip: Toss the chocolate chips in a tablespoon of all-purpose flour before incorporating into batter. This will prevent them from sinking to bottom when cooking.)
3. Pour batter into prepared pan or individual cupcake tins. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes for a whole cake or around 20-25 minutes for cupcakes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. Frost with a Cream Cheese Frosting, either made from scratch or store-bought. (Tip: Add 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract to the store-bought icing. It will taste homemade!)

Love food. Love self. Love life.