Chocolate Cupcakes aka "Hostess" Cupcakes

Today is Andrew's Dad's birthday (the big 6-0) - Happy Birthday Tom!

In celebration of the big day, I knew I needed a good chocolate cake recipe.

Which is why I was glad to run across this recipe on Beantown Baker for "Fauxstess Cupcakes."

Since I was in a time crunch this weekend with the all day wedding event, I used a doctored cake mix for the cupcakes.

The fun part came in with the cream filling (I ended up doubling this recipe to make sure I had enough filling for 20 cupcakes, which gave me leftovers - yum!):

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  

While waiting for cupcakes to cool, combine filling ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal (I used a glass bowl) bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Reserve 1/2 cup of the filling to use for piping the swirls on top of the cupcakes at the end.

This is what the filling looked like after I was done beating it over my improvised "double-boiler" - a glass mixing bowl over a "simmering" pot of water:

I can't describe how good the filling is - it reminded me of the marshmallow creme that is used for an ice cream topping, but slightly fluffier. It held its shape well and tasted good enough for me to lick the beaters!

I don't have any good pictures of this portion of the next part of the cupcake filling process but you can check out Beantown Baker's blog for pictures and a detailed description. Basically, after I cut a cone out of each cupcake, I used a freezer Ziploc bag of the cream filling with a corner snipped off to fill each center and then replaced the cut piece of cupcake on top. Then it was time for the chocolate topping.

For the ganache topping (I doubled this portion of the recipe too, based on what Beantown Baker had recommended and it was just enough to cover all 20 cupcakes) :

• 1/4 cup cream (I used heavy whipping cream that Andrew picked up for me at Shaw's)
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 2/3 of a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips I had on hand)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
  

The ganache came out nice and glossy and I loved how easy it was to dip and cover the top of each cupcake:

With filling leftover in the Ziploc bag (plus more in the mixing bowl), I snipped a smaller corner off to make the swirls across the top. Although I miss my pastry bags, the Ziploc bags have done a decent job!

And although I was worried that I wasn't getting enough filling into the cupcake, I was reassured once I cut into a test cupcake for Andrew to sample:

I highly recommend this recipe - it was delicious, looked great and was a hit at the birthday party! Plus, I froze the leftover cream filling for use with ice cream or another baked good - my mouth is salivating thinking about it!