As if there weren't enough chocoholics

Death by chocolate? OK, so maybe not death -- but something along the lines of diabetic coma is what happened after baking semi-homemade Sprinkles Cupcakes on the Fourth of July.

And I mean that in a good way.

Instead of making that ubiquitous flag cake with the red and blue berries, I decided that CC and I would spend some mother-daughter time baking cupcakes. My friend Laura had given me a sleek canister of the Sprinkles mix a while ago, and it was time to grab all the necessary ingredients to make the dark-chocolate goodness a flag-waving reality.

The canister ($14) consists of the cupcake mix, the signature modern dots, instructions and a recipe for frosting. And it's work, lemme tell ya. So not only do you get the cachet of making "Sprinkles" cupcakes, but you also put enough of your own energy into it to safely call them something very close to your own.

So after getting the milk, unsalted butter, huge bar of bittersweet chocolate to later melt, eggs, vanilla, powdered sugar and huge dose of stamina to psych myself up, I called my 2-year-old into the kitchen to add that extra je ne sais quois to the recipe.

Yes, there was spilled milk. There was also chocolate batter smeared all over my child's face and clothing (the bib went on a little too late). Throw in a little yelling and chasing. Not to mention chocolate-smuggling by a certain pint-sized bandit. (That kid is fast!) And you get a recipe for one of the most natural of disasters -- me in the kitchen with a toddler.

But it was worth it.

In the end, we created 12 amazingly delicious, chocolate-y -- probably the richest I've ever tasted, and Ian agrees -- bundles of sweet Sprinkles joy.

Which is better than a flag cake any day, even on the Fourth of July.