Mint Chocolate Explosion

I think that's what I'm calling these cupcakes I made last night.

I never use filling for my cupcakes so I thought I'd try this out last night. I know I had said I was making chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache and Creme de Menthe, but I just couldn't bring myself to make three stops last night after work in the hurricane. Well...there wasn't a hurricane but it was extremely windy and rainy! I was already stopping at Michael's to grab some colored fondant and Giant for a few ingredients I needed--I wasn't about to make another stop at the liquor store for a tiny bottle of Creme de Menthe! I had bought peppermint extract on Sunday night at Wegman's so I thought this would do the trick just fine.

I needed to experiment with fondant just ONCE. I always see cupcakes with smooth, colorful fondant designs on top and of course beautiful wedding cakes have caught my eye before. Fondant is definitely a beautiful thing. So perfect and smooth (if you do it right of course) and you can make WHATEVER you want out of it.

I had to try and last night was the night.

I wanted the most basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I could possibly find so I went with the recipe I've used and tweaked in the past from www.cooks.com. I made it my own and whipped up the following:

1/4 c. unsalted butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. canola oil
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. nonfat cold milk

Mint Chocolate Ganache
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. heavy whipping cream
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract

And I used traditional vanilla butter cream for the topping. I lathered on a layer of this before covering four of the cupcakes with colored fondant so that it would stick. I had gotten a four-color pack of already prepared fondant from Michael's and since I had a 50% off coupon, it was only about $5! Woohoo!

Then...I winged it! If that's a word...

Next time...I will either add another egg yolk or SOMETHING to make the cupcake more moist. This always seems to be a challenge for me and I need to make this my focus from here on out. No one likes a dry cupcake!! I feel like the addition of cocoa powder may have dried it out a bit. I could have also used the full 2/3 c. of milk instead of only 1/4.

Tips...Use an apple corer when filling cupcakes! It's a quick and easy way to get the centers out...and into your fingers for you to eat :) Also, I placed the chocolate chips in a large, glass measuring cup and poured the boiling whipping cream right into that and whisked it all together for the ganache. This made it easy to pour into the centers of the cupcakes.

I suggest...if you have leftover ganache like I did, place it in the fridge for a few hours, use a melon baller to scoop out chunks of the ganache, place them on a baking tray, and make truffles the next day! That's what I plan on doing tonight fo' sho'!

Check out how my fondant covered cupcakes turned out below. I brought the regular frosted ones to work today and everyone had good reviews. The ganache filled centers are like lava! So delish!

Cheers!