Birthday Collaboration! {Triple Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes}

This past weekend I celebrated my 26th birthday! So for my birthday my dear friend Alyson (who is a crafty woman and also a lover of cupcakes) asked me if I wanted to bake cupcakes with her. Like I could say no to that! She picked out the recipes for what we decided to call the Triple Chocolate Truffle Cupcake. It consisted of a Devil's Food Cupcake with a White Chocolate Amaretto Ganache filling topped with a Chocolate Ganache Frosting. And let me tell you they were DIVINE. It was so much fun working with someone else who has a cupcake passion like myself! I can't wait for our next collab! :)

Also, she found these adorable cupcake decorations that we fell in love with! :)

Devil's Food Cupcake: (makes 32 cupcakes)

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (Alyson's note: We used Penzy's natural high fat, NOT Dutch process)

3/4 cup hot water

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temperature (Alyson's note: we substituted plain nonfat yogurt)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the cupcake pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream (or yogurt, in our case), and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three- quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

White Chocolate Amaretto Ganache:

12 ounces white chocolate (chopped or in chip form)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut in half, softened

2 - 4 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur (depending on how strong a flavor you want, we did 4)

                 

1. Place the chopped white chocolate in a medium bowl, set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the cream with the butter until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a gentle boil.

3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let the mixture stand for 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Whisk the mixture until smooth.

4. Stir in the liqueur.

5. Try not to eat this whole bowl of deliciousness. But seriously, dip some strawberries in it because that would be amazing. Nom...

6. Put the bowl in the freezer to harden the white chocolate a bit in preparation to put it into the cupcakes.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting:

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate like Valrhona 61% cocao

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla (Alyson's note: we scraped 1 vanilla bean instead)

1 tablespoon butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Chop chocolate and transfer into the bowl of your standing mixer.

2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate.

3. Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.

4. Add vanilla and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Let cool to room temperature.

5. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl and mix until fluffy.

Assembling Your Truffle Cupcakes:

Once your cupcakes are cooled and your white chocolate is hardened you can begin assembling your cupcakes.

1. Cut out a hole in the center of your cupcake, approximately 1/2 way into the cupcake and an inch across. This is where you are going to put your white chocolate ganache.

2. Roll a small bit of the white chocolate goodness in your hand to form a ball that will fit in the hole that you just made. Place in the cupcake.

3. After all the cupcakes are filled, pipe on your frosting.

4. And since these were for my birthday, we decorated them with some pearl candies and paper wrappers.

5. DEVOUR. :)

I want to thank Alyson for collabing with me on this! I hope that we can do it again one day soon! <3