Is Cupcake Wars in My Future?

These cupcakes are actually a bit bittersweet for me. My co-worker Eric, who has been a tremendous friend to me since we met over 2 years ago, is moving away. He was offered a bigger and better job down in FL, and I am so happy for him but also so sad to be losing someone who has been one of my "rocks". Those kind of people are hard to come by, especially in DC, but I know that Gchat will keep us together.

Before he leaves, I promised him one last baked good. I should say that he may have hinted in a very obvious way and I went along with it. But what to bake? Something that I could easily bring to work and share with the "Lunch Bunch" was going to be ideal, so cupcakes immediately came to mind. When I came across this recipe for Chocolate Cardamom Cupcakes I was immediately intrigued. One of our local gelato shops makes cardamom gelato, which is my fav, and I just knew that I had to try to make these cupcakes.

The cardamom flavor is very subtle, but the scent as you bring these towards your mouth is amazing. Unless you don't like cardamom then you would think they smell pretty rank. I would love to try this recipe in a vanilla cupcake, as I think the chocolate is very powerful and is definitely the main character. I wanted a stronger punch of cardamom and I think with a basic vanilla cupcake I would get that. But despite that this was an awesome recipe for a beginner cupcake maker.
I just hope that my co-workers think the same thing!