Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes

One of my guilty pleasure food shows is the Barefoot Contessa.  I know she tries hard to make her cooking really accessible, but I mostly think of her food as similar to Martha Stewart.  Beautiful, "faaabulous", and generally way out of my price range.

Pretty little cakes!

And then she made cupcakes.  These cupcakes, with a secret ingredient I wasn't prepared to see in her kitchen: Hershey's syrup.  The woman who will make her own chocolate sauce for an ice cream party is using Milk's Best Friend in baked good.  It's crazy... I HAD to try these.    

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes
Recipe from Ina Garten

For the cakes:
1 stick room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
16 fluid ounces Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp instant coffee granules

For the ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp instant coffee granules

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2.  Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and coffee granules and mix until just combined.

Lots of chocolate goodness, little bit of flour

3.  Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 30 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Don't overbake! Let cool thoroughly in the muffin pan.

I accidentally bought extra tall liners.  So noted.  Don't do that again.

4.  For the ganache, cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache. Do not refrigerate.

Chill leftover ganache.  When hard, scoop & roll into TRUFFLES!

Because there's no leavening agent in the cake, they don't really rise.  But that's ok...you want a flat top to dip into the glossy ganache.  And once the ganache sets a bit and you bite into the fluffy cake...oh my.

Oh!  Almost forgot, do NOT leave out the instant coffee granules.  If you do, the cakes will taste ok, but it won't have that Certain Something.  There's something about coffee that really brings out the flavor in chocolate.