Blast from the past chocolate muffins

I have a serious question, what is the difference between muffins and cupcakes? 

Are they muffins until they've been iced/frosted? Is that the difference? Or are muffins "healthy" e.g. blueberry muffins whereas cupcakes are "sugar"?

Either way, I had an excuse to bake, so muffins it was and being that we had chocolate, I wanted to use a recipe that I had almost forgotten about. It used to be my go-to recipe for chocolate cakes. It started as a blueberry muffin recipe but I tweaked it at some point in middle school (big chocolate and baking years) to be a chocolate cake recipe. I used to make it in a bundt pan and it turned out perfect every time. I don't know how it would work as a layer cake. But anywho, I'm assuming everyone knows that almost any cake recipe can be used to make cup-cakes or muffins. (I really need an answer for this question). 

I must say, I am so sorry that I have neglected to respect and honor this recipe over the years. It is so amazing and I am going to have to put it back on the regular baked goods list. It never disappoints.

CHOCOLATE CAKE-MUFFIN-CUPCAKE RECIPE

1 1/2 cups flour (about 3 1/2 dl flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt 

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar (a little over 1 dl sugar)

3/4 cup vegetable milk (about 2 dl milk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil of your choice (about 1/2 dl oil)

7 oz or 200 g baking chocolate (semi-sweet)

(a good chunk of butter or margarine for melting chocolate)

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another combine egg, sugar, milk and oil.

Mix together dry and wet combos.

Melt the chocolate on a low heat with a chunk of butter. Or if you are into melting over steam, go for it. Let cool for a minute so it doesn't heat the batter too much and then mix it in to the batter. ***

Pour batter into a prepared cake tin/bundt pan or spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 350F or 150C for 40-50 min if you are baking a cake. Cupcakes can be baked at 375F or 200C for about 15 min. Test with a toothpick to see if they are ready, it can be tricky to tell by looking since they're brown. It's also really easy to burn them because of their color, too. 

***I didn't have exactly the 200g of chocolate that gives it the best flavor so I added a bit of cocoa powder. 

I fantasized about making a peanut butter frosting for these, but alas, had no butter or powdered sugar. Life can be oh so cruel sometimes...

Be creative with this recipe! Add a dollop of jam to the cupcakes before baking or come up with something different and exotic. I hate when people say baking is all about leveled cups and exact measurements blah blah blah -- because I've never cared about that and never done anything EXACTLY like a recipe says and everything turns out edible and wonderful and everyone gobbles it up every single time! Recipes are more of a guide in my opinion.

Enjoy the recipe!
 

Thanks for reading and happy baking!!!

Check back tomorrow or Wednesday, I have a slew of pictures from the garden to post!!!