Deep dark chocolate cupcakes filled with creamy chocolate ganache and topped with a smooth cream cheese frosting. These Moist Chocolate Cupcakes {with Ganache Filling} will have chocolate lovers begging for more!
We’ve had a very busy year here in our home. My daughter just finished her senior year of high school and it all came to a head over the past couple of weeks with a Senior Banquet, Graduation, Senior Sports Banquet and a beautiful graduation party here at our home on the lake!
So if you’ve been wondering where I was the past couple of weeks…it was a little crazy here and I needed to take some time to get through all the craziness! But now I’m back and today I’m sharing the cupcakes that I made for my daughter’s Senior Banquet.
A group of Senior moms got together throughout the year to organize and plan an end of the year Senior Banquet for the graduating seniors. This year’s theme was “It’s Written In The Stars”.
I was absolutely blown away at the amazing talent that this group of ladies have! When I walked into the school cafeteria my mouth just dropped because it looked as though it had been transformed to celebrate a fancy wedding!
Blue linen table clothes covered all of the tables and each had a beautiful white fresh flower arrangement as a centerpiece. Everywhere you looked there were hand made star shaped arrangements made from paper with written print on it (like newspaper). The paper’s where rolled in a tube shape then secured and then several were attached together in the center to form a pinwheel/star shape. There were also silver and gold glittery stars that hung throughout the cafeteria.
The evening began with the teacher advisors for the class of 2015 saying their goodbye. Then a group of seniors got up to read the “Senior Prophecy” which was written by a group of Senior students. They shared their prophecy of a future class reunion 20 years from now. They wrote about where it would be held and what everyone in the class would be doing. It was very cleverly written and we all had a lot of laughs!
Then we all enjoyed a delicious meal together. This would be the Seniors final meal as students in the High School Cafeteria.
I made 180 cupcakes adorned with a navy blue gumpaste star and silver and gold dragees to be served for dessert. The flavors included my Cookie Dough Cupcakes, Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes, and these Moist Chocolate Cupcakes {with Ganache Filling}!
Finally we all filed in to the auditorium to watch a slide show of the kids years spent growing up in the school and the community. As I sat and watched all I could think was how quickly it all went by.
If you’re a mom or dad of young children my advice to you is…enjoy every minute. You’ll blink and the next thing you know they’ll be graduating!
Moist Chocolate Cupcakes {with Ganache Filling}
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 Cups All-purpose flour
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 Cup Buttermilk
- 1 Cup Strong brewed coffee
- 1/2 Cup Canola oil
- 3 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
- 3 Large Eggs
For the ganache filling
- 1 Cup Heavy cream
- 1 ,12 ounce bag Semi sweet mini chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
For the cream cheese frosting
- 2 Sticks Unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ,8 ounce package Cream cheese, softened
- 1 ,2 pound bag Confectioner sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325 Degrees F. Line 24 standard muffin tins with paper liners.
- In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients.
- Using a whisk mix until all dry ingredients are well combined.
- Create a gully in the center of dry ingredients and add remaining ingredients except eggs. Whisk together. Add eggs and whisk by hand for 2-3 minutes. Once incorporated mix for another 3 minutes with electric hand mixer on high speed periodically scraping sides of bowl.
- Using a 1/4 C measuring cup scoop batter and pour one 1/4 cup full in each paper liner. (Careful not to drip excess on your pan.) Bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
For the ganache
- In a small sauce pan heat cream on medium heat. Just before it begins to boil remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Distribute so all chips are covered with the cream and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Stir with whisk until cream and chocolate is melted and smoothly incorporated. Add vanilla and whisk together. Set aside to cool.
For the cream cheese frosting
- In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and cream cheese together for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar and mix on low until incorporated then mix on high for 3 minutes. Scraping sides to incorporate all of the sugar.
- Add vanilla extract and mix for another 2 minutes.
How to put the cupcakes together
- After the cupcakes are cooled, using the large end of a large pastry bag decorating tip punch out a hole in the center of each cupcake. (Because this cupcake recipe is so moist I dip the decorator tip in water to help prevent the cake from sticking to it as much. I also use a butter knife to remove any cake that gets stuck in the tip each time.)
- Once you have a hole in each cupcake, fill each with the cooled chocolate ganache. (You can either pour the ganache in or if you slightly chill it in the fridge you can put it in a pastry bag and pipe the ganache in.)
- Place cream cheese frosting in a pastry bag fitted with desired decorator tip and frost each cupcake, covering the ganache filling.
- *If you are making these a day ahead store in the fridge overnight. Remove from fridge an hour or two before serving so they can come to room temperature.
- *The decorations added to these were gold and silver dragees and gumpaste that I colored navy blue using wilton gel food color. I used a combination of royal blue and black until I got desired color. I rolled out the gumpaste to about an 1/8 inch thickness and used a small star shaped cookie cutter. ( Use either powdered sugar or cornstarch on your surface to prevent gumpaste from sticking.) I place the cut out shapes on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and let them harden over night. (Place the stars on cupcakes just before serving as they should not be stored in the fridge.)
- *Fondant can also be used in place of gumpaste. I used gumpaste because I needed to place the cupcakes in an air tight container for delivery and I've had problems in the past with the fondant decorations becoming soft and droopy after being sealed.
Nutrition
These Moist Chocolate Cupcakes {with Ganache Filling} were made for my daughter’s Senior Banquet but these little gumpaste star decorations would be perfect for your Fourth of July celebration too!
Here are some more delicious cupcake recipes for you to try too!
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