Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes - Tuesdays with Dorie

Three Little Cupcakes All in a Row. Absolutely super, an absolute delight, absolutely to be made again for any chocky cupcake occasion! Making them was a breeze and I think the buttermilk is what made them so light and fluffy. One little slip, however. I didn't use the mise en place method as I ought to have done (I have even bought a lot of little dishes and bowls to organize my ingredients). The cupcakes were in the oven already; I turned around and saw a small blob of melted chocolate in a cup - the 2 oz. of melted chocolate in the recipe. Too late to do anything about it so I put it in the fridge (ate it the next day - frozen chocolate is quite delicious). But it did not make much of a difference to the lovely chocolately flavor of the cupcakes - this was the kind of chocolate cake I had as a child, with cocoa powder. No-one used chocolate for baking then.

I left them in the oven for 20 mins. before taking them out - some of them were not quite baked enough so I put them back in for 2 mins. Dorie's timing is perfect here. For the frosting I used the ganache recipe from Carole Walter's exotic Filbert Gateau* as I already had some in the freezer.
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*Recipe for Carole Walter's Ganache Glaze
Makes about 1 cup, enough to cover the top and sides of a 9 or 10 inch layer or tube cake

6 oz. (good) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, like Lindt
6 oz. (¾ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 Tbsp. Grand Marnier, Cointreay, or dark Jamaican rum (optional)
¾ tsp. vanilla
½ - 1 tsp. hot water, if needed

Blend vanilla and liqueur/rum together and set aside.

Break the chocolate into 1-inch pieces and place in the basket of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer into a medium sized bowl and set aside.

Heat the cream and corn syrup in a saucepan, on low, until it reached a gentle boil. Once to the gently boil, immediately and carefully pour over the chocolate. Leave it alone for one minute, then slowly stir and mix the chocolate and cream together until the chocolate is melted and incorporated into the cream. Carefully blend in vanilla mixture. If the surface seems oily, add ½ - 1 tsp hot water. The glaze will thicken, but should still be pourable. If it doesn’t thicken, refrigerate for about 5minutes, but make sure it doesn’t get too cold!
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As a decoration I used Bittersweet Chocolate - Guittard Sprinkles from King Arthur Flour. I think they are quite expensive but oh my, is it worth it! Regular baking aisle fare cannot compare to them. After all, they should last pretty long too - how often does one use them?

My co-workers were delighted with the Cupcakes, as they were with the Pumpkin Muffins. These last two recipes have been absolute hits. Many thanks to Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought for picking the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes. Clara's lovely blog also has the recipe for them.

Next week - Rugelach.