Devil's Food Cupcakes

When I somehow came across the Eat to the Beat blog event, one combining my love of baking and my love of music, I hoped that I would have the chance to participate. Timing ended up working with me for a change, instead of against, as it normally does. :)

The 'rules' were pretty simple: Make and blog about a food or drink that somehow relates to a song, an album, a band, etc. On Saturday, I became searching song lyrics, using my favorites as a start-off point. Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler - none of them reference food that much. I thought about musicals, Spamalot coming to mind, but I really didn't want to work with Spam. LOL

I eventually was searching through Dixie Chicks lyrics, and came across their song Sin Wagon. Something clicked in my head. "Hey, people often describe certain desserts as SINFUL, maybe I can go with that..."

The first recipe I tried? Oy. It came out really soupy. This has not been a good week for first recipes. The firsts go horribly, but the second ones? Oh, the second one. I'll talk about that in a second. (No pun intended)

Of course, with Devil's Food cupcakes, there are like fifty million songs referencing the devil. But I went into this with Sin Wagon in my head and eventually on my cd player. :)

The batter was simply divine. I could've eaten it with a spoon. The ganache (my first ganache ever!) was the same. In fact, I did take a spoonful or two, because hey, it'd been a long day at work. ;) But, shockingly, I did not try a fully frosted cupcake until this evening. I let my guinea pigs go first, and they all loved it. Me? Oh my god. They taste professional. They taste like heaven. I want another already. :)



Ingredients:
½ cup boiling water
6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup flour
½ + 1/8 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

½ cup butter, softened
10 Tbsp. brown sugar
6 Tbsp. sugar
2 eggs

Directions:
In a bowl, whisk boiling water into cocoa until smooth. Add in milk and vanilla; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture in batches, alternating with cocoa mixture; beginning and ending with the flour. Fill liners about halfway full.

Bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Ganache:
½ cup heavy cream
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chunks
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Heat the cream until boiling, then pour over chocolate, stirring to melt, adding the corn syrup. Dip each cupcake into ganache upside down to get a good coating on it.


PS: I just made Dave try one, and he enjoyed as well. We've got a winner! :D