Strawberry Chocolate w/ Chocolate Ganache

A friend of mine has just opened her Etsy shop for Bath and Body stuff with aromatherapy kind of things! Her blog can be found here: http://nickileigh.blogspot.com/


And her etsy shop here: Bare with me on this one, I didn't exactly write the recipe down. Whoops! Oh well. This came about when my sister's boyfriend wanted a strawberry and cream kind of dessert, and I originally was gonna plan on some kind of strawberrys and cream cupcake (or peachs and cream). However, being a woman, there was a need for chocolate. And a white cupcake with chocolate topping just wasn't gonna do it. In any case, here we go!
As usual, I recommend making the frosting first,

Chocolate Ganache:

• 5 oz bitter sweet chocolate
• 2 oz unsweetened
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 cup powder sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Chop the chocolate and put into a heat proof bowl.
2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for about a minute and then stir until combined.
3. Add butter to chocolate, and stir.
4. Whisk together sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla.
5. Pour the sugar mix onto the chocoate and stir until combined and smooth.
6. Let it sit at room temperature until it has thickened. Stir occasionally.
7. Once at room temperature, beat with a mixer until fluffy. (Though mine never turns fluffy.)

Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 3/4 cups or 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp instant espresso
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup cream (you can use milk, I just had cream at the time)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 - 1 cup of strawberries, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Beat butter until soften and add in sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, roughly about 3 minutes.
3. Add egg yolks in one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds in between. Put egg whites aside for now.
4. In another bowl, sift and/or whisk together your dry ingredients.
5. In a measuring cup, measure out your cream and vanilla.
6. Add in about 1/3 of your dry mixture to your butter mixture and mix. Add in some of your cream mix.
7. Alternate between these two and end with your dry mix.
8. Mix in your strawberries.
9. In a bowl, beat your whites until fluffy. Gently fold in the whites into your batter.
10. Fill the cupcake holders to about 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes and test with a toothpick to make sure they are baked completely.
11. Set on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Notes: This made about 2 1/2 dz cupcakes. Oddly, some of mine collapsed in on themselves! Go figure. However, it still tasted awesome!