I’m going to bake chocolate cupcakes  (devil’s food) on Tuesday for my sister’s Halloween breakfast party on Wednesday. I’m using the Darn Good Chocolate Cake recipe. It calls for 1/2 cup of water.   I want to substitute that with something else. This is what I have in my fridge now...

Buttermilk — this sounds like a good idea, but the recipe calls for sour cream also. I’m not too sure what sour cream does or serves in a cake recipe (makes the cake dense?) and also buttermilk, so I don’t know what result I’ll get if I mix the two together.

Heavy Whipping Cream — I bought this thinking to use it for frosting. Heavy whipping cream and heavy cream are two different things? Again, I’m not sure what result I’ll get if I used the heavy whipping cream.

Amaretto Creamer — I really feel like using this, but I don’t know how it’ll taste at the end. Will it give the chocolate cake a nutty taste? Will it make the cake taste good? 

Hot Water — I read somewhere to use hot water when using chocolate cake box mixes because it brings out the flavor.

I know I should test it out but I don’t have time to bake today or Monday. Please help me decide what to use and what result will it give me.

Thank you! 

Why do you want to use something other than the specified water?  One of my favorite chocolate cake recipes (scratch) calls for boiling water.  I like to use strong coffee in chocolate cake.  The coffee taste does not really come through, just intensifies the chocolate taste.

i mean if you are using this for a specific celebration i'd follow the recipe -- recipe testing can be done anytime -- but yes coffee is a great idea

but yes whipping cream and heavy cream are the same

As the others said, you really don't want to change the original recipe - much.  The only thing I'd suggest is to agree w/Sandra - use strong coffee.

Agree!  Strong coffee or espresso.