Cupcakes.

I got into the new show 'Master Chef' this year and towards the end they had a cupcake competition. Ever since that episode I have been wanting to bake cupcakes, but just hadn't gotten around to it. Then at work my boss told me that he wanted me to make cupcakes for all the residents! I got really excited, particularly when he told me he wanted me to go all out with fancy ones and nothing too 'regular'. 

I came up with a gingerbread cupcake with a lemon buttercream frosting.
Pumpkin cupcakes with a classic cream cheese frosting.
& Vanilla cupcakes with mexican chocolate ganache.

Since I've been so eager to try to bake these I decided I couldn't wait the next few days to make them at work and I wanted to bake them today. I chose to make the vanilla ones, with a tiny twist of my own.

First off, I didn't have cupcake pans, so I made mini loaves of 'cupcakes' instead of the ideal ones.

Here is the recipe for my Lemon-Banana Mexican Chocolate Ganache Mini Cupcake Loaves

Cupcakes: ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4  cup granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 ½  cups  all purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

dash of salt

1/4  cup milk
1 banana
1 tbsp. brown sugar

Ganache: ½ cup heavy cream½ cup (8oz) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 tbsp. cinnamon

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter and sugar.
Mix together until light and fluffy (this is known as creaming)
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. 

 In a separate small bowl add together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk. 

Add in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

*Throughout this entire process continually scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Evenly fill the muffin cups/loaves with the batter, sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on top of each one and bake for about 20-25mins
Until nicely risen, lightly browned on top, and a tester  comes out clean.

 

Let cupcakes cool completely out of oven before putting ganache one.

For the ganache, put all ingredients in a double boiler, with the double boiler on a high-ish simmer.
Let all ingredients melt together, stirring often, until smooth and creamy.

Then dip the tops of my cakes in the chocolate
& Enjoy!