The Cocoa Cupcake Hero, a blast from the past

It has indeed been a sweet week for us, with a dessert just about every night.

Not that the boys are complaining.

I had a few blog events I felt I absolutely had to get in this month, so the boys were the willing recipients of lots of goodies, with this one being their last for the month of May, my entry into Cupcake Hero: Cocoa, hosted by Laurie, my TWD and DB pal, over at Quirky Cupcake.

Please don't mind the terrible picture. I was trying to squeeze it in with a few other things, and was also trying to learn how to take a good picture with no flash. None of those turned out, all blurry, but I think I have it partially figured out (as some of my later, non-cupcake) pictures turned out quite well.

I didn't go out and get a special cocoa for this. I didn't even go get a new container. Not because I didn't want to, but because I wanted to stick to the true recipe. The recipe as was written down for me many years ago by my grandmother.

Yes, I'm on a nostalgia trip again. Been a few of those lately, but that's okay. They remind me of why I love food, and where that love came from. Memories of making things with my grandmother are happy memories, so there is no reason not to enjoy reliving them occasionally.

My grandmother used to make this as a cake, a bundt cake. I have the pan she used on my shelf right now actually. I always called it the mayonnaise cake, but really it was a Miracle Whip Cake. Only this time, it is the Miracle Whip cupcakes.

I'm sure there are people now making faces at the idea, "Miracle Whip? You mean salad dressing? In a cupcake? Ugh." But have an open mind. You don't taste the dressing, but you do get a slight zing in flavor, though more importantly, what you get is a nice moist cake or cupcake. And this is old fashion comfort baking, with only one bowl, no mixer needed, nothing fancy in ingredients. It was the housewife's dream chocolate cake, one that came together in a snap and came out perfect every time.

Even though we always had our Mayo cake plain, I fancied mine up a bit, making a brown sugar banana buttercream (same recipe as for the Opera cake and my 3 tiered cake, but with sauted and rum kissed banana puree added into the sugar syrup.) The match worked very well, as the empty cupcake papers seemed to indicate.

Now, again, I am getting my entry in under the wire. I hope Laurie likes these old fashioned cupcakes as much as we did.

Miracle Whip Cupcakes

Makes 18 cupcake or 1 bundt cake

1 cup Miracle Whip Dressing (You CANNOT substitute something else for this, it just doesn't work!)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mix together the Miracle Whip and the sugar. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed and smooth. A few lumps are okay.

Spray a muffin pan and line with muffin papers. Fill 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, but check them at 15. It may take less time, depending on your oven.

Allow to cool. Frost if you'd like, but really, they are good plain.