Cupcakes on my mind....

Laid awake last night thinking about cupcakes.  Not an uncommon occurrence. The thought came to me that I should make a blog to keep track of all my cupcake experiments.  I tend to find a recipe here and a recipe there and another one over there, then combine them into a cupcake.  Then I can't remember where I got the recipe.  Pinterest helps, of course, but I have pinned so many cupcakes and tasty treats to try, it's hard to find what I want.  And speaking of Pinterest, why is there not any easy way to re-organize your boards?  When you start pinning, you don't realize how many different categories that really should be set up, so you end up with a bunch of different things under one category and then you just have too much.  That is my problem.... but I digress.

My youngest daughter came home for a break from college.  She always wants me to make her cupcakes.  Her favorite?  Chocolate devil's food cupcakes with milk chocolate ganache filling with chocolate french silk butter cream frosting.  Is that enough chocolate for you?  Well, I couldn't find/remember the recipe for the ganache that I usually make, so I improvised....bad idea!  The ganache turned almost totally solid in the cupcake, so it was like having a giant chocolate chip in the middle.  Sounds like it might be okay, but it wasn't.  I found chocolate ganache wads discarded in my sink.  I get the message.....find the ganache recipe!!!

So I gave it another go on 4th of July.  While looking for the ganache recipe, I discovered a youtube video of someone making whipped ganache.  Brilliant!  You make the ganache like usual, let it cool, then put it in your fridge for about 20 minutes, then whip with a whipping beater.  She only used one on her hand mixer, so I did the same.  The ganache gets lighter in color and almost becomes like a thick mousse.  I personally thought it was fabulous.  I think my husband liked it too.  My daughter liked it but said she liked the regular ganache better.  She said that the whipped ganache was too much like the frosting on top.  There's just no accounting for taste!

You can see in the second picture the whipped ganache filling.  It does look like the frosting but, in my opinion, they taste totally different.  I think it would be really good with some peppermint extract added to either the ganache or the frosting.  I'll try that another day.

Next up... using these beauties.....