Sunday was my friend Zinni's birthday. (I know, yet another post about a birthday cake, most of my friends have fall birthdays, but they are almost over!) He loves Whiskey and Chocolate which inspired me to start making cakes with whiskey frosting. I love the combination of a rich moist chocolate cake with a whipped whiskey frosting. I am not really a whiskey drinker, but I think it's delicious in frosting. 
I made the cake for Zinni and the cupcakes for the tailgate on a busy Thursday night. I was rushing around getting ready to go to Purdue for the weekend and didn't have time to bake a double batch of cake from scratch. Instead I used cake mix, but added vanilla and mini chocolate chips. Pure vanilla is a little pricy, but when you buy it in bulk, it's cheaper than buying the extract. Buy a big bottle for $30, it should last you all year. The cheapest place to buy pure vanilla is Mexico where a large bottle is $9. Stock up when you go there.
Add 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla and ½ cup mini chocolate chips to the cupcake batter. Follow all the other instructions on the box. The vanilla adds flavor, and the chocolate chips up the chocolate factor. It is an easy way to make a box mix seems like you spent hours making it from scratch. Make sure you use mini chocolate chips since they will melt into the batter completely, they add more chocolate without changing the texture of the cake.
Click here for the recipe for the whiskey frosting.
