Heaven in a paper liner: Triple Chocolate Cupcakes.

Let's talk about the look in my eyes. What caused that?

 

Maybe I've been single too long. 

Maybe Grad school has made me crazy.

Maybe since I only ever hang out with girls (there are only 2 guys in my program, one married, one engaged)

Maybe it's because there is no cocoa bean, no sweet tooth fairy, no sprinkles, no creme de la creme. There's just me and my oven that cooks 25* hot... 

But I think the look in my eyes is because that cupcake I'm gazing at lovingly is likely the best thing that has passed through my lips since daddy took me to Brio, and even that's comparing apples and oranges. 

I shared these with people in my program, the local sister missionaries, and all of my professors... who has brownie cupcake points. This girl!!

Direct quotes:

"Zimmerman, I've had cupcakes from big fancy cupcake places, including Sprinkle's cupcakes, yours could stand up to any of them" -Wilkerson (who I later found out is diabetic... oops!)

"I tried to steal Wilkerson's before he realized what he had been given"- Wendy, the dept secretary

"I don't even like chocolate cake and that was the best cupcake I have ever eaten"-- Swift, department head

A real conversation:

Me, bearing cupcakes: "Happy International Chocolate Cupcake Day!"

Swift: "Ohh, we like Zimmerman."

Weems (graduate school dean): "But we didn't realize how much till just now"

So yeah. These are AMAZING. AND! I can't find the link for the recipe!! But! Never fear. In order to make them without getting my computer dirty, I wrote out the recipe! Unfortunately it means I can't site my source. But whoever you are. My mouth (and half of the population of Portales) thanks you!

Without Further Ado:

Milk Chocolate Cupcakes:

2/3 cup butter

1 3/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1/4 c sour cream
1 cup milk (I forgot to put this in the recipe and when I was making these for to impress someone I couldn't figure out why the batter was so darn thick!) 

1 1/4 c cocoa powder

1 1/4 c flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and brown sugar, add eggs and sour cream, and milk; mix till smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix till just combined. 

Fill 24 lined cupcake tins. (I know sizes/how full you like them varries, I ended up with 24 cupcakes and glass ramekins filled with deliciousness). 

Bake at 350* for 17-19 minutes. I've quit poking my cupcakes to check for doneness, I just tap the tops, if they stay depressed, not quite done. If they spring back up, perfect! 

Let the cupcakes cool COMPLETELY. (I made them before I went to institute for an hour and a half or so. They were cool when I got home)

Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling

(yup, you read that right. Don't let that Ganache word scare you-- it's easy peasy!)

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream 

1 t vanilla

Mix all in a microwaveable bowl. Heat in microwave for about a minute on medium-high power, then mix it until it is smooth. At this point I let it sit for a few minutes to thicken to make it easier to work with. 

See what I mean! Easy. 

CHECK OUT THAT GANACHE! MMMMMMM. And also the cake texture. Perfect!

White Chocolate Butter-cream Frosting

Look close at the frosting! It's PERFECT. Light. Airy. Delicious!

1 cup white chocolate chips

2 sticks (1 cup) butter at room temp

6 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp Vanilla

2-4 Tbsp milk

Melt chips completely in microwave. (Heat on 50% power for a minute, stir. If not melted, put back in the microwave for 30 second increments on 50% power). 

Beat the white chocolate chips in with the butter till nice and creamy. 

Add powdered sugar and vanilla.

Slowly add just enough milk to get the right consistency. 

Assembly:

Take a serrated knife and cut a hole in the tops of the cupcakes (for me this wasn't a precise science, I just tried to make a hole that would allow enough ganache to make it worth while, you know?) Some bakers put tops over their filling, but why? It's going to be covered in frosting anyway... Use the tops for... snacking? Cakeballs? Feeding the ducks? 

Spoon the slightly thickened ganache into the hole made in your cupcake. 

You can always frost with a knife, but I like easy... so I put the frosting in a disposable piping bag, cut the tip off of it and piped an easy swirl on top of all 27 cupcakes! 

I put on chocolate sprinkles just for fun. 

Use these cupcakes to win friends and influence people. 

Or as a substitute for a love life... who needs men when you can have cupcakes.... (oh dear, but seriously)

Also, for easy transportation/mess fee use short clear Dixie cups. They're perfect size! You could even cover them, if you are ambitious. 

Let them eat Cake...

One day, we were eating dinner, and there was a knock on the door. I forced the kids to stay seated and I answered it. It was my neighbor and his then 6 year old son. With a little prompting from his dad, Zach said in one breath "Miss Emily, would you make my birthday cakes? I want one with Thomas and one with Lego Prince of Persia Sands of Time like this picture." Then he showed me a Prince of Persia Lego set instruction manual. This was long before his actual birthday (maybe a month in advance). The Thomas cake was for his family party and the Prince of Persia for his friend party.

Here's how the Thomas one came out-- it made me want to have a boy child who loved Thomas so I could make them this cake:

Tell me that's not adorable!

Also, it was my friend's daughter's birthday, so I made her cupcakes too... (I just like baking, ok?) And they turned out SUPER CUTE! I just used extra frosting from the Thomas cake, so there are some funky colors (like where the blue and red frostings were next to each other...) but how cute are these owls? 

I especially like the ones with the pretzel rod twig! It's sweet, chocolaty, salty, gummy, delicious and super easy! 

Rainbow Cupcakes

Today (actually right now) we're having a party for a few people in my ward. I volunteered/was voluntold to make cupcakes. And while I used the book "Hello, Cupcake" for the decoration idea, but I decided that regular vanilla cupcakes weren't good enough for me. I decided that I wanted to try rainbow cupcakes! I've seen rainbow cakes, and they are awesome, and I had food coloring... Anyway...

Start by making a normal white/vanilla cake mix. (I'm sure you could probably even get away with yellow.) Divide the batter into 6 bowls in about equal proportions. Dye each bowl a rainbow color-- I did red (pink), orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Then I tediously spooned about a spoonful of each color into cupcake lined trays. I didn't spread out the colors, but could have. You'll see the design they made.

On this one you can see all the colors if you look close enough (even if it's blurry)

Bake as directed. THEN: (this is very important) Let the cupcakes sit in the baking pans for a full 5 minutes (I set a timer to make sure I get the full time in). This allows the moisture to redistribute and keeps the cupcakes more moist as they cool.

Baked they look like this; kind of psychedelic.

But the real fun comes when you cut into them... because who sees the tops anyway?

A side view:

And the Inside:

Sweet right? 

(To get the colors in layers instead of concentric rings of color I think you could put each color in a ziploc bag and pipe them evenly in the liners rather than plopping with a spoon.. maybe next time)

For the decorating you'll have to go get the book... but Here's why my final product looked like:

Here are the Birthday People; Nick, McKensey and Jillian

And here's another close up. I'm pretty proud of myself here... 

A cupcake cake

This one needs no introduction... or really instructions, just check out the photos.
I volunteered to make a cake for my friend's birthday, and decided to try something new. This is really easy, and I think it turned out cute :)

24 cupcakes (Hello fun-fetti from a box!) 

Add Frosting

Look how pretty :) 

And it would be so easy to make it more complicated with different colored flowers, or designs on the petals, but today I wanted quick and easy.

Viola!