Baking Recipe: Dark Chocolate Ganache Cupcake with Mocha Buttercream

It's December, and for this month there are a lot of December babies; my mom, cousin, work colleagues and not forgetting myself too. {Lol}

Not to mention Christmas is around the corner. You all must be busy preparing for Christmas. Started your Christmas shopping yet? As for myself, {gosh.. where do I even begin}.. I'm already thinking of what Birthday/Christmas menu to come up with. Afterall, it's the time of the year to eat, drink and be merry. Will update you peeps later about the menu once it's finalised. Most likely in my next few upcoming posts.

Right now, I like to dedicate this blog to my darling MOM. It's her 55th Birthday and for this year, I've decided to bake her Dark Chocoalte Ganache Cupcake with Mocha Buttercream. What better way to incorporate both of the flavours which are my mom's favourite. Well, as I know she did mention she like chocolate cake and as I observed over a period of years, she does love to drink coffee.

I've put a lot of thought into the cake, even at one point I became indecisive that I even consulted Elisabeth from Food and Thrift Finds to have a second opinion. Not knowing Elisabeth was busy preparing a meal for Thanksgiving, she still found the time to revert back to me. {THANKS Elisabeth!} Of course, Elisabeth thought the cake sounds divine. So we have a winner {well.. in my opinion}.

Here's what I did. I prepared the ganache filling in advance and scooped them with a melon baller into little truffles.

Next, I didn't want to write the message HAPPY 55 BIRTHDAY MOM, cause I always like to be different. Instead of writing the message, I've decided to melt white chocolates and pour into the Alphabet Candy mold to have a 2D or isit 3D wording effect. As for the numeral 55, I got 2 numeral 5 candles. No birthday cake is complete without the candle. The decoration of the cupcake this time, was pretty simple as I used my trusty 1M piping tip and topped it of with the chocolate alphabets which I prepared ahead of time. To brigthen the overall chocolate colours, I sprinkled some yellow sprinkles. I guess the theme was inspired by the expresso pot and cups I took earlier photos.

Basically, right now I'm keeping fingers crossed that my mom will like what I baked for her. Apart from that I have even secretly invited my god mom and her family to dinner to surprise my mom. {Hopefully, mom won't find out}. Dinner will be at Silverspoon, a fantastic restaurant which serves really good Italian food. I even went to the extend of hiding the cupcakes in my god mom's fridge. It was a success as my mom thought that I didn't bake anything for her and to suprise my mom is a tough job. She has her way of draining information out from me. Gosh... =.=''

If you're drooling right now and especially if you're a coffee and chocolate lover, do try out this recipe. The perfect chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate ganache filling and topped with mocha buttercream is definitely a mouth full and I assure you that it's heavenly delicious.

Recipe:

Yields approx. 24 medium sized cupcakes

Ingredients (Perfect 'Chocolate' Chocolate Cake)
adapted from Hersheys

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk (Full Cream/ Whole milk.. to me none of this low fat stuff works well >.<)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or more but not too much)
1 cup water

Note: This time, I replace 1 cup water with 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water. The vegetable oil has been replaced with 1/2 cup of melted butter. The batter will be runny, but the end result of the cake will be a super moist chocolate cake.

Prepare the chocolate cupcakes:

1. Heat oven to 350°F {approx. 180-190 degs}. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2minutes. Stir in boiling water {batter will be thin}. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Fill cups slightly less than 2/3 full with batter. Bake for about 10 minutes and then take it out from the oven. Position the truffle in the middle of each cupcake, and nudge it down a little so that it sinks into the batter. Fill each cupcake mold with the remainder batter and bake for another 15 minutes or poke a skewer into the cake and if it comes out clean, then cake is cooked. Cool completely, before transferring them onto wire racks.

Note: Make sure to insert the skewer into the cake part and not the ganache filling, to test for doneness of cake.

Ingredients (Dark Chocolate Truffles)

1/2 cup dark chocolate button
1/2 cup milk chocolate button
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp glucose
3tbsp thickened/ heavy cream

Prepare the dark chocolate truffles:

1. Combine all ingredients into a heat proof bowl over a pot of boiling water or into a double boiler.

2. Stir over heat until mixture is smooth.

3. When the chocolate is completely melted and reached desired smoothness, remove from heat and place in freezer for about 15-20 minutes or in the fridge for an hour until it's firm or to a fudge consistency.

4. With a mellon baller, scoop out the truffles to form little round-ish truffles and place them on a tray layered with parchment/ baking paper.

Feel free to experiment: Add 1tbsp of your favourite coffee liqueur to the melted chocolate ganache. Suggested coffee liqueur: Bailey's Irish Cream, Tia Maria, Kahlua or Orange Chocolate Liqueur.

Ingredients (Mocha Buttercream)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons instant coffee, dissolved in a splash of hot water

Prepare mocha buttercream:

1. With a whisk, whisk the butter till light and fluffy.

2. Add in powdered/ icing sugar in batches, and whisk until well incorporated, making sure to scrap the sides of bowl.

3. Sift the cocoa powder and add it in to the buttercream mixture.

4. Next, add in the coffee. You will notice that the coffee sits on top of the buttercream. Continue to whisk at medium speed until incorporated.

5. Lastly, add in vanilla extract.

Note: I only used 2 cups of icing/ powdered sugar as I don't quite like my frosting to be overly sweet. Add as much icing sugar according to taste and to your preference. Same goes to the amount of coffee added into the buttercream. If you find the frosting to be too soft, chill it in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes, so that it hardens up a little. Using a Wilton 1M tip, pipe the buttercream onto the cupcake.

Have a glass of cold milk and hope you enjoy the Dark Chocolate Ganache Cupcake with Buttercream {slurping ;p} 

xx