Overflowing Chocolate Cake Cups with Vanilla and Strawberry Icing

How pretty! I love how each one of these hand-held chocolate cakes is like a work of art. It just happens in the oven and each one is unique.

There's more cake too: In my opinion, when you follow the instructions for traditional cake cups, there's too much cup. I want to taste the cake!

Healthy cake batter: I used my famous chocolate cake batter for the cups (and it's pretty healthy; just 2 tablespoons of oil in the whole batch), but you could easily use your favorite boxed cake mix. Note: A boxed cake mix will fill 24 cups, not 12. Boxed mix or not, one thing is clear: these festive individual cakes will brighten up any celebration.

A note about the icing: For this recipe, I chose store-bought icing - the kind found in the cake mix aisle. You can also use the chocolate Ganache Icing from my Cupcake Party or the Marshmallow Icing from my Chocolate-Marshmallow Garden Party Cake.

Don't want the overflow?: I overfilled each cup so it would overflow while baking; I love the look of the puffed-up cake dripping down the side (and, it's not messy because the muffin pan catches the overflow). If you don't want that look, fill the cups halfway, instead of 2/3 of the way.

Have fun!

Overflowing Chocolate Cake Cups with Vanilla and Strawberry Icing

12 ice cream cups (flat-bottomed, not waffle cones!)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup boiling water
1 cup icing, any variety - I chose half vanilla and half strawberry

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the ice cream cups in the bottom of a 12-cup muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until blended and smooth. Gradually beat in the boiling water. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture. Beat on medium speed until blended and smooth.
Pour the mixture into the cups, until each is about 2/3 full (or 1/2 full if you don't want overflow).
It will look like this (when 2/3 full):

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a wooden pick comes out clean or with little bits of cake clinging to it. Cool before topping with your favorite icing.

Makes 12 cake cups