Yesterday I really wanted to surprise my fiance with cupcakes at his work (since I had a portion of the day off---a rarity!). He works about an hour away from where I live so I needed to make something expedient yet yummy. I didn't want to rely solely on my box of chocolate fudge cake mix so I made a few alterations. I had some leftover mint chocolate ganache in the fridge from filling my macarons the other day so that inspired me to make chocolate fudge cupcakes filled with mint chocolate ganache.
Ingredients:
For the Cupcake:
Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix (you can pretty much use any boxed cake mix, but I like the idea of chocolate on chocolate)
Mint Chocolate Ganache (dark or milk chocolate would also work; you could probably use white chocolate as well, but I am personally not a huge fan)
For the Topping:
Approximately 1 Cup of Whipping Cream (or more!)
Approximately 2 Tablespoons of Confectioners Sugar (some people like a sweeter topping so feel free to add more; you could also use granulated sugar instead if you don't have icing sugar on hand)
Optional: You could add some green food colouring to really highlight the mint flavour. I also added some crushed up mint chocolate chips (I just crushed them because I thought it looked more 'gourmet')
The Method:
Mix your cake mix according to the box's directions:
It's okay if your mixture is a bit lumpy!
For easy pouring, I always put the cupcake mixture into a liquid measuring cup. Some people like to use an ice cream scoop, but I find this method works a whole lot better for me. After transferring the batter, place cupcake liners in your cupcake pan and fill the individual cups with batter three quarters of the way. Then take your refrigerated mint chocolate ganache and spoon about a tablespoon into the centre of the cupcake batter. The batter I used was fairly thick so the ganache didn't fall to the bottom like I expected it to.
Pop them in the oven at 350 degrees F for around twenty minutes. The toothpick test will still work with these cupcakes, just stick your toothpick on the side of the cupcake rather than the centre (or else you might mistaken the yummy chocolate ganache for uncooked cupcake batter).
Once the cupcakes come out of the oven, place them on a rack to cool. Now it's time to make the whipped cream topping! My fiance absolutely hates icings of any kind, but adores whipped cream so I made this just for him.
Take your whipped cream and pour it into a chilled mixing bowl to avoid potential whipped cream floppiness (I popped mine into the freezer for about five minutes). Then add your confectioners sugar and whip your whipping cream until it is stiff. You want it fairly stiff so you can pipe it onto your cupcakes like icing. If the cupcakes will be consumed later, don't pipe on your whipped cream too far in advance.
I added some green food colouring to my whipped cream, but it looks great in white as well.
Wait till your cupcakes are completely cooled then fill a piping bag fitted with a medium-large star tip (or any tip!). Ice your cupcakes and then sprinkle some mint chocolate chips on top if you like. So good that I ate three in one sitting.
Beautiful Baking Sweeties!
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