Sprinkles Belgian Dark Chocolate Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting

I've had this mix sitting in my pantry for months and i've finally decided to make it. I also have the Red Velvet cupcake mix too (my favorite flavor fresh from their store)....but that's another blog. I first heard about Sprinkles from reading People magazine years ago. There was a picture of people standing outside the store waiting to get some cupcakes! I was thinking that must be some good stuff! So when I went to California to visit my bestie, we just HAD to make stop in Beverly Hills (it was the only location at the time)  to get some of that good stuff. Fresh is the way to go, straight from the store. The Red Velvet is yummm. The Dark Chocolate, Lemon, and Carrot was good. It's $3.25 each or $36/dozen.

I bought the Sprinkles mixes at a Williams Sonoma Store, but you can order it online here. It's a bit pricey @ $14.00 a pop. The mix makes 12 cupcakes. 

Sorry about the poor lighting in some of the photos. I'm still learning/experimenting. I'll get better, I promise! 

Here are my ingredients:

Ingredients for the cupcakes. I forgot to put the milk in this shot! Sorry, yeah, you need the milk..but you won't be able to make it without their cake mix. 

 Ingredients for the frosting.

 Now for the frosting recipe:

1- 1/2 c. of butter

Pinch of salt

2-1/2 c. of confectioners or powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 oz bittersweet chocolate,melted and cooled to room temp

After mixing, if the icing isn't to your desired consistency, you can add a teaspoon of milk at a time until your satisfied. 

This is the batter all mixed up. It looks really fluffy...I don't know if I overworked it or its supposed to look like that, but the batter is pretty airy. 
I used my tablespoon scooper because I didn't have the regular ice cream scooper. I'm not one to lick the mixing bowl or the mixer. Neither is my husband, but I did lick my finger to taste the batter. It tasted pretty good.  I'm sure you bowl lickers are shaking your heads in disbelief. My daughter is only 4 months old so she's not going anywhere near that stuff for awhile. 

Now for the frosting. Here I have the butter, salt, confectioners sugar mixed up and now i'm adding the melted bittersweet chocolate *remember, it should be at room temperature when you mix it in*.
This is my end result. I added 2 extra teaspoons of milk. The instructions say not to overmix the frosting. The consistency should look like ice cream. 

Cupcakes out of the oven for cooling. 

With the Sprinkles trademark dots...they come with the cake mix. 
My end result. The cupcake holder holds 23 cupcakes...the mix only makes 12..oh well.

You can definitely use any box cupcake batter. I use them all the time and just use the recipe for the frosting. I'm not a frosting person, but this recipe was really good. The hubby rated these cupcakes a 4/5 overall. I asked him what made it a 4 and not a 5? The cupcake was a little crumby. I'd have to agree, but all in all, it was a good cupcake. The box cake mixes turn out some really moist cupcakes and they are super cheap to get at under a dollar at some places. Happy eating everybody!