Good Ol' Chocolate Cupcakes...seduce me!

I think the new title of my blog (OOOH!Cake) is alot more me than vanillapod. Vanillapod sounds calm, collected and stable. OOOH!cake has different connotations. Something more upbeat, excited and passionate-definitely more me! ANYWAY! let's move on to choccccaaalllaaaatteeeeeeeeee...

The chocolate cupcake recipe was taken from Jennifer Appel's Buttercup Bakes at Home. I highly recommend that everyone get this book! The recipe title is 'Our favourite chocolate cake' and it certainly is a veryvery giving recipe. I did one and a half batches of it, since I wanted to try making a Grasshopper Cupcake after being inspired by one of the foodie blogs. I forgot which one, but if anyone knows, please let me know so I can give due credit.

In the picture, I frosted it with a simple chocolate buttercream which bordered on the verge of a chocolate fudge. I have yet to try out the Grasshopper idea but this was my plan. Fill the chocolate cupcakes with a mint pastry cream and top with a white chocolate buttercream/ganache. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here's the recipe for the pastry cream.

(Mint) Pastry Cream from Raffles Hotel
100ml milk
2 yolks
15g sugar
1/2tsp mint essence
7g cornflour
10g butter

1) Bring milk to a boil
2) Whisk eggs, sugar and mint essence together
3) Whisk in cornflour
4) Add egg mixture to the boiling milk and stir continously, taking it off the heat
5) Whisk in a bowl and add in butter once it cools

The pastry cream might be ALOT nicer if you probably triple or quadruple the recipe and add in a vanilla bean instead of mint essence. I was just trying out how a mint creme pastisserie would taste like. Apparently too eggy for a cool mint taste. So I whipped some cream and folded it in to lighten the taste. Hope it goes down well with the cupcakes when I frost them tomorrow!!!

I apologize for not being able to put the recipe for the chocolate frosting. Problem is, I did the frosting purely by tasting it. I know it includes melted dark chocolate, cocoa, icing sugar, milk and butter but I'm unsure about the proportions! I'll remember to write it down next time and then i'll post it up here! In the meantime! WISH ME LUCK FOR THE GRASHOPPERS!=)