Oh dear. These were so very good! So very much worth the effort!! I've seen several 'tutorials' available all over food blogs but I used The Apron Archives. I've seen them @ Annie's Eats and Culinary in the Desert as well and I'm sure a slew of other's I haven't come across yet!
I used my own chocolate cake recipe- a doctored box mix that has never failed me. I've come to realize though that I may be over filling my cupcake tins though. I dunno, something. I always dream of the cupcakes giving me a beautiful dome with nothing spilling over and cooking on the lip of the cup. I can continue to dream. I've done the let the whole let them set @ room temp for 15ish minutes before putting them in a 400 oven, closing the door and lowering temp to 350 as per normal instructions. It works about 25% of the time. I'm going with I want a straighter cup pan. And a smaller (but just slightly) scoop to portion out my cupcakes. Whine, whine.
On to the awesome cupcakes.
I'd use your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. Let's be honest, they're really only a vessel for the filling and the chocolate ganache on top.
The Filling:
12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cup Marshmallow Fluff (or if you're like me- a jar of the stuff, I love marshmallow)
3-5 Tbsp. heavy cream- start with 3)
Directions:
In a mixer or a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, Fluff, and heavy cream until light and fluffy. Remove 1/2 cup of the filling and place into a pastry bag fitted with a #3 or #4 tip (wilton round). To the remaining goodness and add another teaspoon or two of heavy cream. Mix well to combine. Take a larger pastry bag fitted with a large round tip ( I wanna say it's a #12 or a 1a- whatever large round tip you've got that floats your boat) and fill with the slightly runnier stuff.
Insert the large tip into the cupcake roughly 3/4 way in and squeeze, moving up slowly until you see the icing squish up around the tip. Do this with all 24 of your cupcakes. You want a good amount of this stuff- its good.
The Ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
Directions:
Heat the cream in a saucepan just until it begins to steam. Do not let it boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit for a bit, then add the butter and stir until smooth. Transfer the ganache to a small bowl and dip the top of each cupcake into the chocolate, smoothing with a knife if necessary. Place in fridge for chocolate to set- 10-15 minutes.
Take your remaining the remaining filling (the first bag- of the thicker stuff) and pipe on your lil swirly Qs. Standard is 7- but you can do whatever floats your boat.
If you have any of the cream left, it's awesome as a dip for fruit (thinned out a little more), as a 'sauce' for fruit pizza (add a bit of cool whip to lighten it up) or sandwiched between some cookies. It's all fantastic.
Wow everyone with these awesome cupcakes.
