Week 2...White Chocolate Mud Cupcakes!

 White Chocolate Mud Cupcake

It has been said "Coffee makes it possible to get out of bed, but cupcakes make it worthwhile".  I am not sure who says it but it has been said.  Many of my tasters would agree.  I made this cupcake as our staff was preparing for our Youth Retreat.  Lots of kids, lots of work, lots of stressed out staff! I should mention over 1/2 of my tasters are youth staff.  I showed up at 10:30 pm and they were still hard at work and I was a sight for sore eyes!  One even said she had prayed that I would show up with this weeks sample!  Well as an answer to prayer let me begin to unfold the story of the White Chocolate Mud Cupcake...

I have to say as I read this recipe I started to doubt myself.  I thought they would be horrible!  Then I thought...there has to be one bad experience...for humor sake.  What a great story it will be when these explode and I have this huge disaster on my hands!  So I went on with the recipe for White Chocolate Mud Cupcakes.
For The Cupcakes…

• 4 ounces cake flour
• 4 ounces super fine sugar (regular sugar worked just fine)
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 8 ounces white chocolate
• 4 large lightly beaten eggs
• ½ teaspoon baking powder

(I doubled the recipe because it would only make 12 cupcakes and I wanted 24)

Preheat your oven to 325° F.  Place the butter and chocolate into a double boiler and stir until melted, then set aside.  I do not have a double boiler so I used a large dutch oven pan and a smaller pan floating in the water.  In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer on slow until thick and well blended, then fold in the flour and baking powder.Slowly add the chocolate and butter mixture and mix until well combined then the recipe calls for you to spoon batter into cases until they are approx half full, I would suggest that you fill it 3/4 full.  It is not a high rising batter.  I like high peaking cupcakes so I would fill it 3/4 of the way. Then place in the middle rack in your preheated oven.

 Bake for approx 20 to 22 minutes or until cupcake bounces back then you tough the center, then remove and let sit for a few minutes before removing the cupcakes from the tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool.

 After I baked the cupcakes I then made the ganache frosting.  The first one I made was AWFUL!!!!  It curdled up and was just gross.  So I started again and with the new recipe.  Here is the recipe...

White Chocolate Ganache

24 ounces of white chocolate
1 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of butter

Melt together in a double boiler.  Once it is melted mix in your mixer until it begins to peak.  Remove from mixer and place in the fridge until it cools.  After it cools place in mixer again and whip for 1-2 minutes on high.  I then put it in a piping bag with a large round tip and placed on cupcake.  I then shaved white chocolate on top for decoration. 

People seemed to like them.  The cake part was compared to a cheesecake taste and texture a lot.  They were very rich tasting.  I believe when I bake them again I will add some vanilla to the cake batter.  People requested a little more flavor to the cake.  The ganache was good.  Very white chocolate tasting!