The Best Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting

Today I needed to make some quick cupcakes for…well, just because I wanted to! ha. So I made the old classic stand-by, the best chocolate cupcakes recipe. And just let me give you a little tip. And keep this near and dear to your heart. If you don’t use a good quality cocoa in this recipe, it will turn out sub-par. Trust me. I’ve done many tests and trials. Try to use a full out cocoa powder that is really dark in colour and smells like strong chocolate. It will give it a much deeper and richer flavour. Also make sure to use natural cocoa powder and not alkalized or ‘dutch processed’ cocoa (dutch processed, or alkalized cocoa has been processed with an alkali to neutralize the acids in it. So when you use a natural cocoa powder that still has its acids, it reacts with the baking soda in the recipe to help it rise in the oven. This is what makes this recipe so good. Perhaps I should edit it to specifically say natural cocoa powder..hmm..)

The cocoa that I use is from a natural foods store. It’s called Ambrosia Natural Foods and I buy their big bags of cocoa whenever I’m in the area It just tastes much better than anything like Hershey’s or your store brand since most of those are dutch processed (well, they are in my area anyways). But hey! That’s just my tastebuds talking. They like a deeper chocolate flavour in things (:

So for the frosting on the cupcakes, I made a quick ganache with 8oz of callebaut milk chocolate and 3/4 cup of hot heavy cream. Then when it was liquid and warm I whipped it in my stand-mixer for a few minutes until it was cool and held its shape so it could be piped easily.

Voila! Delicious and easy cupcakes.

And I promise to have an actual new recipe soon! I’ve been busy making halloween costumes lately so I haven’t had much time to experiment with many new recipes.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Mousse filling and Chocolate Ganache Frosting

I am NOT going to give the recipe for these. I just wanted to post SOMETHING about them because I put so much work into them. They are definitely not a favourite recipe at all. They were nothing what I was expecting. So disappointed!
I wanted to make something where I could utilize two new (and by new I mean things that I don’t usually have in my cupboard for whatever reasons) ingredients that I had. But now I feel like I wasted the chocolate on these! I used callebaut milk chocolate for the chocolate ganache. The chocolate, which I can’t get in stores unless I order it online from the US) was delivered to me by my dear boyfriend Kevin who’s aunt lives in Michigan. His sister went to visit their aunt this passed weekend and Kevin was sneaky and asked his aunt to get some things for me (The chocolate and PEPPERIDGE FARM BAGELS! I love these bagels so frigging much it’s not even funny. There is no bagel like this in Canada and it breaks my heart. They are so soft and buttery and delicious!!! ahhhh!!!). Anyways, so I used almost 3/4 of the brick of chocolate in these and now I am sad that it wasn’t in anything that I REALLY loved and wanted to eat constantly. And that’s asking a lot, because most of the time I don’t eat what I make aside from tasting it. I just really wanted something delicious! I have to redeem myself  soon.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream

I really wanted to bake today but didn’t know what. I decided I’d make these cupcakes again! The perfect chocolate cupcake recipe is what I used. Then I made some random quick buttercream that I ended up not liking that much. But that’s just because I don’t like these kind of frostings, you know the ones that are made with butter and icing sugar? I don’t like them. Whenever I eat them I feel sick and I don’t know why. Maybe because of too much over-indulgance as a kid when my mom would make it. I feel this would be good with a french merangue buttercream. Since the cupcake recipe is already on this blog, I will include the french merangue buttercream recipe that I love so much (:

French Merangue Buttercream (this recipe makes around 4lbs of buttercream. I’ve scaled it down before with no bad results. It turned out perfectly fine!)

680 grams of sugar
1/2 cup of water
12 egg yolks (1 cup)
2 lbs of room temperature, unsalted butter
2 tsp of whatever flavour you want!

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring to disolve the sugar. Once the sugar is disolved, reduce the heat and let it boil until the temperature reaches 240F
While the syrup is boiling, whip up the egg yolks until they are pale and thick. Lower the speed to around medium and then carefully pour the sugar syrup (once it is at the correct temperature) down the side of the bowl into the egg yolks. Whip at the highest speed until the mixture is cool and looks light and fluffy. This can take anywhere between 15-20 minutes.
Once the mixture is cooled and the bowl is cold to the touch (like how it feels at room temperature) you can turn the speed to low and gradually add the softened butter. Once the butter is all mixed in, mix in the flavourings! This also tastes really good even without vanilla or anything in it.

Yum!

The Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Out of all the years of my life that I have been baking, I have not found one chocolate cupcake recipe that tasted good to me. They all tasted the same. Lacking in chocolate flavour, un-moist, and dense. Then I found this recipe. I was reluctant to try it, because I was afraid it would turn out like every other cupcake recipe I had found. But no! It was really good. Here it is.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
2-1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (**Edit!! be sure to use natural cocoa powder and not dutch processed/alkalized cocoa powder.)
1 cup 2% or whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Beat the butter until it’s softened. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, that should take about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well combined. Measure out the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk it to combine. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. Add about one third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and beat to combine. Add about half of the milk/vanilla mixture and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between the wet and dry and finishing with the dry. Scoop the batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake the cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes, until the cake tester comes out clean.

Just for fun, I wanted to turn these cupcakes into german chocolate cupcakes. So what I did was coat the sides of the cupcakes with a ganache and rolled it in toasted coconut and finely chopped pecans. For the icing on top, I used a dulce de leche frosting, which I made by combining the dulce de leche with a bit of a good buttercream frosting. I piped that on top in a swirl and on top of that, I drizzled some of the extra ganache in a thin strand. Oh my god they were delicious! Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of these awesome cupcakes, only the chocolate cupcakes by themselves. Enjoy!

♥ Tara