Cocoa Cupcakes

These are my very favorite chocolate cupcakes.  These guys are absolutely delicious.  I got this recipe from the newspaper in Denver a good many years ago.  They are pretty easy and well worth the time to make cupcakes from scratch.

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups flour

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla until smooth.  In a small bowl mix together sugar, cocoa, salt, soda, cinnamon, and flour.  Add dry ingredients to egg mixture one-half cup at a time.  Mix until smooth.  Add boiling water all at once.  Mix until smooth. (Batter will be extremely thin.) 

Pour batter into paper lined cupcake tins, filling them about two-thirds full.  (Or bake it in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.)

Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  (If you use a 9 x 13 inch pan the cake will take longer to bake.)

Let cool on a wire rack.
Frost as desired. Try this Fudge Frosting.

Makes 24 cupcakes

 

Paper Bag Scrapbook Album

Materials
3 Paper Bags (I use lunch bags, but any size will work.)

Hole punch tool (It’s quicker to use the three hole punch if you can move the punches close enough.)
Ribbon to bind with (I buy the “Spool o’ ribbon” when it’s on sale.)
Papers, stickers, brads, whatever  (I usually furnish papers, ribbon, and some stickers, but ask for donations for everything else.)

Pictures (I take pictures throughout the year and print them.  I also send a note home telling parents that we are doing a project and have them send some pictures of the child and their family or whatever.)

1. Take your 3 paper bags and lay them on top of each other alternating the ends.
2. Fold them in half to create a book. The three open ends each form a pocket.  We make tags and other things to stick in the pockets.  We usually tie or staple a ribbon on each tag to facilitate pulling them out of the pockets. Punch three holes along the spine through all three folded bags.
3. Push a ribbon or two through each hole and tie off.
4. Decorate your album with any of the embellishments you have.
I always print a few sayings about Mother’s day for the students to use as fillers if they want. I fold the bags and punch the holes.  My students do the rest.  I usually cut the ribbons ahead of time, so the students can just take what they need and use it.  I also cut fancy and/or colored papers into pieces just smaller than the “album” pages for the students to use. For this album I found some green bags at the Dollar store.