Week 11 Cupcakes - Breaking Bad

J has been obsessed with AMC's Breaking Bad the last few weeks.  He managed to get through the 5 seasons on Netflix and then catch up to the finale last night.  His intense Breaking Bad schedule has been making him a bit paranoid as he's been watching 3 to 4 hours of it a night but it has been good to see him really enjoy something.  So while playing around on Pinterest the other day I came across these cupcakes:

The idea of blue meth decorated cupcakes just seemed to funny to pass up plus appropriate since the finale was last night.  Then I came across a bottle of blue sugar crystals at a craft store Friday and I just couldn't resist.  However, the recipe was for a lemon cake and I'm just not feeling lemon-y right now.  So local blogger/cookbook author Christie Jordan of Southern Plate to the rescue with her Chocolate Velvet cake recipe from her first cookbook.
So these turned into chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips and a cream cheese frosting.  Topped with Walt's signature blue crystals of course.

1. Source: A mix of Raining Hot Coupons for the inspiration and Southern Plate for the cake recipe I ended up using.

2. Ease of Recipe (1 being cake mix/canned icing - 5 tons of steps and very time consuming):  2.  This is a cake mix based cake recipe and the frosting went together very easily.

3. Changes Made:  I changed the cake recipe into a cupcake recipe by scooping them into cupcake liners and changing the bake time to 18 minutes.  They came out perfectly.

4. Problems:  None

5.  Overall Impression:  This cake worked really great turned into cupcakes.  Nice and chocolatey and the frosting was perfect.  Tangy and sweet without being over the top on either.

6. Quantity:  16

7. Make Again?:  I will definitely make the cupcakes again but I probably won't do the crystals again.  They're fun to look at but a little difficult to eat.