Blogging therapy: More cupcakes!

Happy new year, all! As I'm finishing up graduate school applications, I'm feeling woefully inadequate about my academic abilities....so I'm lessening the stress by interspersing my document-printing with seasoning an old cast iron pan that was my grandmother's, listening to every Great Big Sea song ever, looking up recipes, and now, blogging.  I am nothing if not a productive procrastinator.

The slew of pre-Christmas potlucks invited some creativity in my kitchen, and I had one mild success with these Mexican Chocolate cupcakes.  The recipe was a blatant rip-off from one of my favorite food blogs.  Everything she makes is just so creative and tasty-looking that I had to try this particular cake.  I altered the baking time to make cupcakes, and I filled them with the mascarpone frosting and topped them with chocolate ganache (because it's just so damn easy and tastes so damn good).

I did lots of things wrong, but fortunately, this recipe was extremely forgiving because they tasted delicious.  The batter has olive oil, balsamic vinegar and cayenne pepper in it...apparently, I used the wrong type of cocoa, because instead of looking black, mine was a pleasant chocolate-y brown.

                                                   

 (I was one cupcake wrapper short, so I substituted aluminum foil).

They baked up beautifully in about 20 minutes, with some lovely crackling on the top.  I let them cool before doing anything else to them.

(Sorry, it's blurry.)

I followed her recipe for the Mascarpone filling to the letter, but I either didn't fold in the whipped cream gently enough or something, because it was more goo than fluff.  Fortunately, I was planning on using it as a filling, so this actually worked out better.    It's amazing how impressed people will get at filled cupcakes, and it's incredibly easy to do.  You can fill one of those frosting injectors and do it that way, but I don't have one. I just spoon some filling into a baggie and cut off one of the corners. Then, using a sharp paring knife, I cut a little cone out of the top of each cupcake, plop in some filling, cut off the pointy tip of the cone (and eat it), then replace the "lid."








Next came the ganache--also easy--equal parts good chocolate and cream with a bit of butter, all melted over a double boil. I used a good quality but relatively cheap Icelandic chocolate you can find at Whole Foods.  Using the baggie method, I drizzled some on top of the cupcakes.  It was a little thick (as I intended), and I was in a bit of a hurry, but they turned out nicely anyway.

And, since I am aware that my photography is somewhat boring, here is an "aww" inducing picture of our cocker spaniel, Shelby, from home.  She is a bit of a goober and likes to perch on the couch like that.

Next up: Bangers and Mash with apples and onions!