Merciful God, You are great in compassion and Your tenderness for us is without measure. We ask You to give us today our daily bread, and also provide for the needs of all of Your hungry children around the world. Through Christ Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Chocolate Cupcakes

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I have another summer supper to post here, but I need more than a few moments to gather my recipes and post them. In the meantime, I'll post this absolutely scrumptious recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes. You can make them in almost the time it takes to say Chocolate Cupcakes three times. Maybe a little longer ;-) but they are really easy.

I combined two really yummy cupcakes to come up with them. I made this recipe from Tasty Kitchen a few months ago but I really was not gaga over the cake. You know me and cake. So for my son's grad party, I took my favorite, super easy cupcake recipe and combined it with the truly delicious ganache frosting from the other recipe. The cupcake is so soft and moist and perfect, and the ganache gets a little bit firm (unless left in the heat -- don't do that!). It's delightful to break through the topping to get to the soft cupcake. It's very, um, Hostessesque, but so much better. I modified the ganache recipe for ease in measuring and for a little bit more ganache.




Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache
24 cupcakes
 

1 pkg plain devil's food cake mix
2 T unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sour cream
½ cup oil
½ cup water
3 eggs
1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pans with 24 cupcake liners (I do one pan at a time, so youu can just use one pan if you want). Set pans aside.

Place cake mix, cocoa powder, sour cream, oil, water, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Blend on low for 1 minute. Scrape down sides and beat 2 minutes longer. Pour batter into cupcake lined pans two-thirds full. Bake until cupcakes spring back lightly when touched, 20-26 minutes. Cool on racks for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on rack until completely cool. Frost with ganache and refrigerate if it's very warm in the house.


½ cups heavy cream
 ½ cups butter 
2 cups good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the heavy cream and 1/2 cup butter in the microwave until it is steaming. Remove and add the  chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes (really -- just let it sit, don't fuss) then stir until smooth. If necessary, heat again very briefly until chocolate is completely melted.

Let it sit for at least an hour or until it becomes ‘spreadable’. You may have to put it in the fridge in summer months in order to help it along. Spread on cool cupcakes. 



3 comments:

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

I love Hostess cupcakes! Will have to give this a try.

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe using a red velvet cake mix. Wonderful! So delicious. Thanks for sharing.
A.Kuhn

Barbara said...

Thanks so much for letting me know, Angie. Geoffrey always requests Red Velvet cake (even though he doesn't really like cake -- go figure) and I just can't imagine adding all that red food color. Will definitely try it this way. Maybe Father's Day when he comes home!