"Better Than Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

Occasionally I have these intense cravings for baked, sweet things and usually they must contain chocolate.   One of my go-tos for an easy fix is to whip up some chocolate cake in cupcake tins using the Hershey's Cocoa recipe that is printed on their cocoa powder packaging. I made them this past week but somehow I managed to botch the frosting. The original chocolate frosting recipe is as follows:

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Picture from Hersey's website.

Instead of the warm, creamy chocolate lava that I was expecting (and have made before just fine thank you very much!) I ended up with chunky chocolate siting in butter oil. After separation and I couldn't get it to homogenize! Sometimes I wonder in puzzlement what I do wrong to mess up recipes. Did I heat my butter too hot creating a separation with the caseins and fat? Did I not heat enough? Was it because I added the vanilla to the mixture before the sugar and milk?

What ever the problem, I was determined not to let such fundamentally amazing ingredients like chocolate and butter be tossed down the sink. I was convinced I could use them somehow. In fact I started by shoving it into the center of some cupcakes as sort of a filling but the cupcakes didn't really look appetizing after gorging them with a mysterious brown pudding. 

My ultimate solution: Beat with 8 oz. cream cheese. 

One block of Neufchatel (1/3 less fat cream cheese) created a beautiful, dark chocolate cream that was smooth and spreadable. I received rave reviews from everyone at work; even so much to say "can I have one with extra frosting please?" I even admit I spread it onto my bagel as a sweet and savory cream cheese topping.  Big win for this curious chef's baking adventures.  I think the moral of this story is to whip all baking mishaps with some cream cheese to turn it into something Martha Stewart would be proud of. There is only one problem with making sweet cream cheese spreads... you end up licking, spooning, and finger dipping until your stuck with a generous sugar hangover!