It's Alive! The Blog is ALIVE!!!!

Hi all! Yes, my blog is not dead, but was hibernating, as my friend Julie put it! I have been insane with work and travel and even though I have kept on baking, I just haven't had the time to do any postings. However, I am determined to be a better blogger and so that means you should be seeing more regular postings from me from now on.

That said, "Happy Halloween!" So, awhile ago, I watched a baking show on PBS (yes, I am THAT big of a baking nerd!) on cupcakes and saw a recipe being made for cream-filled chocolate cupcakes, like those of the Hostess variety. They looked delicious, even though I don't really care for chocolate cake/cupcakes/etc. Then, as I was mulling around ideas for a fun Halloween treat to bake, the cupcakes came to mind, but with a ganache frosting, with piped white icing that would be decorated to look like spiderwebs. I know how to manipulate piped icing to give the look I was going for, but had only previously done it on plates, with sauces. Anyway, I thought I would give it a whirl.

The cupcake recipe can be found here. I made the following changes....

1. I used paper cupcake liners. Buttering and flouring individual muffin cups is maybe my nightmare and makes it trickier to get the cupcakes out, and travel with them. In using the liners, I knew that instead of hollowing out the cupcakes from the bottom, like the recipe calls for, I would need to be doing so from the top. This was super easy and I think probably better, since you have a little more space to work with on the top of a cupcake. Also, I used a standard, 12 cup muffin tin and had enough batter for 24 cupcakes, not 12, like the recipe states.

2. I made my simple Go-To ganache recipe for the tops of the cupcakes. Take one package of good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 Tblsp of corn syrup and put in medium bowl. Place a little over 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream over high heat in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Quickly remove cream from heat and pour over chocolate chips. Let stand for about 20 seconds and whisk mixture in slow, concentric circles (again, I'm a nerd, but it's important! You do not want to whip air into the mixture, or else you will get bubbles in your ganache.) Next, dip each cupcake into the ganache with enough to smoothly cover the top. Also, this recipe will leave you with a good amount of ganache left over, so you can do what I did, which was put it in the fridge to chill and I will use my melon baller later to make some easy truffles.

3. I totally cheated and bought store-made white cookie icing for the 'spiderwebs'. You should have some cream filling left over in this recipe that you could use, but I didn't have the right icing tip, and by the time I got to the grocery store for ingredients I needed, any other store that sold proper decorating tips, was closed. The cookie icing I used worked great, however, I would advise to frost two cupcakes at a time, meaning dip two cupcakes in ganache, then pipe the icing swirls and toothpick the spiderwebs. If you do more than that at a time, the cookie icing will begin to set, leaving the spiderweb to not 'pull' as smoothly.

4. Making the spiderwebs is easy, once you get the hang of it! Once the ganache is applied to the cupcake, from the center, make a swirling, circular pattern all the way out to the edge of the cupcake with the white icing. Then, working quickly, take a toothpick and from the center, pull the toothpick through the ganache/icing to the edge of the cupcake, continuing all around the cupcake.

These were a hit at work, and I do have to say that I was very proud of myself for how these turned out! Also remember, that the decorative tops work beautifully anytime of year and can be interchanged with different ganaches as you please. Enjoy!