These are the cupcakes I make for my Dokiversary, the anniversary of when I experienced Doki Doki Literature Club. On December 9, 2017, after watching Jack Septiceye play it and quickly figuring out how to get the true ending, I downloaded the game and one-shotted it in about 4 hours. By the end of it all, I was completely in love with it and its characters, especially Natsuki, whose love of baking inspired me to make these cupcakes each year. Now every December 9, I bake and decorate a full set of cupcakes and enjoy them while rewatching Jack's playthrough, sometimes playing a DDLC fangame afterwards as a bonus. These also go really well with Italian strawberry pop, as I discovered during my 2020 Dokiversary! If you'd like to replicate what you see here and celebrate your own Dokiversary with them, just follow the steps below!

By the way, if you're thinking one set looks flat, that's because they are. I had to experiment a little with the temperature on my toaster oven and half of the cupcakes came out wrong, but I felt they deserved to be decorated, shown off and enjoyed anyway. From this experience, however, I was able to determine the temperature needed and how long to bake each set, allowing me to include that knowledge in the recipe for future reference!

Ingredients:
- 1 box of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup of cooking oil
- 1 1/4 cups of water
- 2/3 cup of milk chocolate chips
- 1 container of Betty Crocker French vanilla frosting (the second one shown in the photo is one that I admittedly ended up just snacking on due to not actually needing it for the cupcakes)
- Red, blue, green and pink decorative frosting tubes (I recommend Cake Mate for the best results, though any kind should be fine, and I've taken a liking to using Twinkle whenever a certain Cake Mate colour isn't available)
- 1 tube of black decorating gel
- 1 package of hot chocolate and marshmallow Hershey Kisses (available during winter months, usually November through February where I live--use regular Kisses if your Dokiversary is during any other time of the year or you just can't get your hands on these ones)

Recipe:
1. Preheat the toaster oven to about 400-425 degrees F and place cupcake papers into two 6-space cupcake trays.
2. Submit to the Batterwitch and make the cupcake batter as directed on the cake mix box, adding the chocolate chips to the batter halfway through the mixing stage..
3. Divide the batter into the cupcake papers, making sure to get a good amount of chocolate chips into each one as well. Fill each paper a little over halfway but no more than 3/4 full--they're going to rise, after all, but you'll still want to add a little extra batter to make up for the space taken up by chocolate chips.
4. Put one of the filled cupcake trays into the toaster oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. To make up for the toaster oven obvious not being as strong as a regular oven, be sure to place the tray as far inside and as close to the heat source as possible so they'll cook properly and rise well. You'll know it's time to take them out when you stick a toothpick into the middle of one of the cupcakes and it comes out mostly or entirely clean.
5. Take the cupcakes out of the toaster oven, leaving the heat on, and let them sit for 20 minutes to cool. As soon as you take them out, immediately repeat step 4 with the other tray. For the second set of cupcakes, 35-40 minutes should work, but you be the judge.
6. Spread a nice thick layer of frosting onto each cupcake in the first batch once they've cooled
7. On one set of cupcakes, decorate four of them with a single large frosting heart, using a different colour for each, and use the black gel to draw a cute smiling face and the letters "MC" onto the fifth one, obviously representing MC-kun. Where did the sixth one go? Assuming you're like me, you ate it as a taste test. Let's pretend it's that "missing fifth girl" that MatPat keeps going on about.
8. Spread frosting onto the second set after its cooling time passes, then place two Kisses each onto the top edges of four cupcakes, making sure the frosting keeps them stuck on. These will be the ears for the kitty faces you'll be making. Once you've done this, give each of these cupcakes a different eye colour, then use the black gel to draw the nose, mouth and whiskers.
9. On the final two cupcakes, use the four coloured frostings to spell out "DDLC" across them, using the colour arrangement to show your Doki preference--if you haven't gathered yet, pink represents Natsuki, blue is Yuri, red is Sayori and green is Monika.
10. Keep the cupcakes in the fridge, either in the trays or in a large airtight container, until you're ready to eat them. This will also help them firm up a little more.
And voila, you've made cute cupcakes that Natsuki would be proud of you for (even if she'd be reluctant to admit it at first)! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do, and that you've found a fun new annual tradition to indulge in! And in general, don't ever forget the feelings you experienced when you found that special day! <3