I am headed to my friend’s house this evening for dinner and I offered to bring dessert. As has been the case lately, I raided my pantry for what I can make from scratch without going to the store, and I was able to make chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Everything was working according to plan. For the cake, I halved this recipe from All Recipes, and used my mini muffin pan. Now I don’t own a fancy stand mixer, never have. I’m not against them, they are just an expensive purchase that I’m saving for marriage or lottery winnings if that day ever comes (it will look fab with my Vera Wang china, yes, I have a china pattern picked out…I’m 32, I’ve had time to think about this stuff, back off). I’ve also found for most recipes, I simple electric hand mixer works just fine. I went to plug mine in and finish mixing up the cake and found out the hard way in the middle of a dirty kitchen and a time crunch that it was broken. I managed to finish the cake batter by hand, but the frosting was going to be a different story.

All I wanted was my favorite, cream cheese frosting – a simple mixture of a block of cream cheese, half a stick of butter, a cup of powdered sugar, and about a teaspoon of vanilla. I decided to use my food processor and pray for the best. In the end I was quite pleased with the results, and it’s a great alternative on the fly.

The butter and cream cheese combined. I scraped down the sides and pulsed the food processor for another moment

Added the sugar and vanilla using the same technique - looks pretty yummy to me!

Transfered to a bowl to chill in the fridge for about an hour

The finished product in use 🙂