Portillo's Chocolate Cupcakes

Last night, was my brother, his wife, and my two niece's last night with us in Chicago.  So, of course, for dinner we ordered in Portillo's.  I LOVE Portillo's and if you are ever in the Chicago-land area you need to go there.  I always get the chopped salad, but they also have phenomenal Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs, and chocolate cake.  They ever make a chocolate-cake-shake that has chunks of their chocolate cake in it!

My niece, Sydney and I wanted to bake something together and I figured my own version of Portillo's chocolate cake would be a cute idea to have for dessert.  I found a copycat recipe online for the cake, but it used mayonnaise!!!  I guess I can't say I'm surprised.  That stuff is just too good to be remotely good for you.  The mayo thing got my wheels turning and I decided to try replacing it with non-fat greek yogurt.  I figured, you can do this with mostly any other recipe, why not cake?  The cupcakes looked a little funky when I took them out of the oven (they were very flat), but after topping them with amazing chocolate frosting, they looked beautiful, and oh yea, they tasted great! Truly, they reminded me of the famous Portillo's chocolate cake, plus I didn't feel so guilty eating them! And the best part, I had Sydney as my helper! She did all the decorating :)

Portillo's Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Food.com)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 box chocolate devil's food cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup water

1 cup non-fat greek yogurt

For the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 oz low-fat cream cheese

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup skim milk

2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 cupcake wells with cupcake wrappers.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix with eggs, water, and yogurt.  Fill cupcake wells about 2/3 full an bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool

3. Make the frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Slowly mix in the powdered sugar until you have a desired taste.  Beat in the milk and vanilla.  In a small bowl, melt the dark chocolate by microwaving on high for 30 seconds and then mixing, repeat until melted.  Beat in the melted dark chocolate to the frosting.  Top cooled cupcakes with your frosting (or get young child-labor to help you...but be careful, they may eat a lot of it along the way)!

Enjoy :)