Favourite Chocolate Cake

I originally found the recipe for this cake on the Wilton website, and it has easily become one of my absolute favourite cakes, and by far my favourite chocolate cake. It stays really moist and tastes great with butter cream icing (vanilla or chocolate). A word of warning though, the chocolate chips can cause the cake to stick to the bottom of the pan. This can be avoided by putting the chocolate chips in a few minutes after the cake has been in the oven so that they don't sink right to the bottom.

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided into 1 cup portions
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your pans by flouring them, lining them with parchment, or spraying them with a non-stick spray.
In a microwave safe bowl, or on the stove in a double boiler, melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with the butter until completely melted. Pour chocolate into a larger bowl and add the sugar, beating at a low speed until the sugar is well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Once everything is well combined, add 1/2 cup flour, the baking soda, and salt. Mix well, and then continue to add the remaining 2 cups of flour and the water. I find at this stage that its helpful to alternate between the two in small amounts as it reduces the flour that flies everywhere. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips and pour the batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 35-40 minutes (depending on your oven, and the size of the pans used). When a tooth pick comes out clean, the cake is ready. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, before removing and allowing it to cool completely on a rack.

Chocolate Ganache-Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes

Growing up, my sister and I didn't always get along, but now that we've grown up I think you could probably go so far as to even call us friends. So, when she asked if I'd make a cake for her 20th birthday, I was more than happy to oblige (after first having a mid-life crisis because my baby sister is 20, which makes me just plain old).

She requested Red Velvet, which I realize I've already mentioned in a previous post. However, these were not just basic Red Velvet cupcakes. They were filled with chocolate ganache, and were made with a different recipe than the previous cupcakes. If you read my last post, you'll notice that the recipe I used came from Baking With The Cake Boss, and while the cupcakes were definitely red, they were also pretty bland. For these cupcakes, I used a recipe found in Cupcake Diaries (at this point I feel the need to mention that I have still yet to watch Cake Boss, and also that I've never seen DC Cupcakes either - Cupcake Diaries was referred to me). This is the third Red Velvet recipe I've used to date, and it's probably my favourite. You can find it, the chocolate ganache recipe, and the cream cheese recipe on the Recipes page! 

What I instead wanted to talk about was filling cupcakes! I've done this a few times now, and have used two different methods. The first was simply using a Wilton 230 decorating tip to penetrate the cupcake and fill it with the filling of choice. I'm not partial to this method because you cant tell how much you've put into the cupcake, and therefore there is often too little filling as opposed to too much in order to avoid the cupcake breaking. I found that the majority of the filling ended up being absorbed into the cupcake this way because there was so little of it.

Recently, however, I purchased a cupcake corer from Golda's Kitchen. This is what I used when making my sister's cupcakes, and it made filling them a very easy, straightforward process. All you need to do is:

1. Bake cupcakes of choice, as per insturctions
2. Allow cupcakes to cool (you don't want to core them while they're too warm or you'll risk breaking the cupcake)

3. Position corer over centre of cupcake and gently push downward

4. Once corer has been inserted into the cupcake, twist the corer back and forth to cut the inside of the cupcake

5. Remove corer from cupcake, and remove cupcake centre from corer

And voila, cored cupcakes, ready to be filled. If you're using the ganache, like I did, you'll want to make sure it's cooled before filling the cupcakes. Once they're filled as desire, ice your cupcakes and enjoy!