Chill out: How to upgrade your cupcakes.

These are classing yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting, decorated with red icing that I bought already in a piping bag. I made these in honor of the World Series and just because I felt like baking.

I just used a box mix and followed the instructions. These should make 24 depending on how much batter you put in each. Mine came out to 27.
Preheat your oven to 350, it takes roughly 15 minutes to get to that temperature.

Things you'll need:
Box of cake mix
Water
Oil (I prefer olive oil)
Measuring cups
3 eggs
Medium sized mixing bowl
Hand mixer/standing mixer/whisk/ spoon
Ice cream scoop or serving spoon
Spatula
Cupcake trays
Cupcake liners
Tooth picks
Icing, room temperature

Pour  your cake mix into a medium sized mixing bowl, make a small well in the middle to put your wet ingredients. Pour in your water and oil, the box calls for vegetable oil but I stick with olive oil, and your 3 large eggs (the package will say Large).
Mix it all together, I use a hand mixer, if you are using a standing mixer make sure everything at the bottom is combined. You can use a spoon it just takes more energy and takes longer.
Put your cupcake liners in the cupcake trays.
When pouring my batter I like to have a spatula on hand.

To scoop and pour my batter I use an ice cream scoop, you can also use a serving spoon.
Fill the liners up half way or a little higher.  I use the spatula to catch the batter drippings on the edge of the bowl. Later I use it to scrape excess batter to put into the liners.
Put both trays next to each other on the middle rack so they bake evenly. The box will say to bake for roughly 18-23 minutes. I went with 21 minutes. I try to stay in between times, always steer away from the maximum time because you can always keep them in longer but you can't unburn your food.
When the timer goes off, check your cupcakes by inserting your toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean then they are done, if not they must go in a little longer. You can also use a fork or a knife to check for doneness.

Once they are done, the trick is to put them in the refrigerator. The reason for the title of this post. I put mine in for 30-60 minutes, I wasn't really watching the clock. Chilling them helps cool them faster,  which is good for 2 reasons.
1) it makes sure they don't crumble apart when you are putting the icing on.... and the icing won't melt.
2) it makes them less spongy and more dense, which is how I prefer them.

You want to make sure your icing is about room temperature, easy to spread. You can also throw it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. I just spread on a nice even layer of vanilla and then I piped on red icing to make it look like a baseball. After icing you can eat them or put them back in the fridge to chill.