George Town Cupcake's Chocolate Ganche Cupcake

I have some exciting and happy news tonight. My sister in-law, Ashley, who was proposed to during half time of the Super Bowl, took me up on my offer to make the wedding cake, or should I say, wedding cupcakes :) Needless to say, I'm so excited about the opportunity to make cupcakes for such an awesome couple. I've made cakes, but never experimented much with cupcakes so I'll be taking the next couple months to try recipes and techniques. Since Ashley hasn't decided on specific flavors, I thought I should at least get started with some basic flavors. Chocolate was first on my list.

If you've ever been to George Town Cupcakes you know how freakishly good their cupcakes are. I searched the internet for their recipe and found that the only one they have released is for their chocolate cupcake with ganche frosting. This cupcake is more of a light cupcake with a dark chocolate taste. Since it isn't too rich, the heavy ganche frosting works really well.

This is the George Town Cupcake Recipe from the Washington Post:

For the cupcakes

• 1 1/4 cups flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (4 ounces) European-style unsalted butter, such as Plugra brand, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, preferably Madagascar bourbon
• 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder, sifted (see headnote; may substitute another good-quality cocoa powder)

For the ganache frosting

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup Callebaut semisweet chocolate chips (6.4 ounces; see headnote; may substitute other good-quality semisweet chocolate chips)

Directions:

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard cupcake pan with 12 baking cups, and a second pan with 6 baking cups.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt on a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Stop to add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

Combine the vanilla extract and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

Reduce the speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.

Add the cocoa powder, beating (on low speed) just until incorporated.

Use a standard-size ice cream scoop to fill each cupcake paper with batter, so that the wells are two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the ganache frosting: Lay a large piece of wax paper on the work surface.

Combine the heavy cream and chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Fill a medium saucepan with an inch or two of water and place over medium-low heat. Place the bowl over the saucepan and let the mixture melt, stirring until it is shiny and smooth.

Remove the bowl of chocolate ganache from the saucepan; let it cool slightly, for 2 to 3 minutes. Working with 1 cupcake at a time, carefully dip each cupcake top in the warm ganache, twisting your wrist as needed to make sure the cupcake top gets completely coated. To prevent drips, quickly turn the cupcake right side up and place on the wax paper. Allow the ganache to set for 5 minutes before serving.

 I topped mine with different sprinkles :)

I really wanted Jake to try one but he isn't a big chocolate person. He is a peanut butter and chocolate kind of guy though! I mixed some peanut butter, powder sugar, and milk to make a peanut butter spread for the top of his cupcake. I then topped that with the ganche. Success!

Week 3 Runs

Week 3, Run 1:

On Tuesday I headed to the gym still pretty upbeat and motivated from my long run on Sunday. I knocked out 2.5 miles on the treadmill in 22:20.

Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 22:20
Time per Mile: 8:57

Afterward I did some weights and called it a night.

Week 3, Run 2:

Thursday I had to work a little late and keeping in mind that I needed to pick up Jake from his gym at 7, I was glad I had already knocked out my 2.5 mile run for the week. I ran a quick 2 miles and was out.

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:10
Time per mile: 9:05

Week 3, Run 3:

Today was so nice outside! It was 50 degrees and I was actually warm running in a long sleeve shirt. My time for this run was exactly stellar but I decided I don't want to concentrate on my pace and instead just getting through my long runs, period. I love running in Arlington. Yes, running in a city environment can be annoying with cars and stop lights, but my favorite places to run are the neighborhoods a few blocks away from the "city" areas. The houses are all so unique and adorable and I love finding new streets to run through and explore. Much to Jake and my disappointment, we found that these "cute" houses don't have such an cute price tag on them however... sigh...

Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 36:34
Time per mile: 10:38

Chicken Lettuce Wrap happiness

Last night I surprised myself, and Jake, when I put together a lettuce wrap dinner. We both had our doubts and PB&Js on hand when I started but were happily satisfied with the results. This meal will definitely be an addition to our week day dinner rotation.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Recipe:

1 package ground chicken

8oz water chestnuts, chopped

1/2 cashews, chopped

1/2 cup shredded carrots

2 tbs sesame oil

1 tbs Chinese 5 spice

1 tbs finely grated ginger

1/2 tbs minced garlic

1/2 tbs salt

3 tbs hoisin sauce

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs teriyaki sauce

1 head Boston lettuce

Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add chicken, ginger, garlic, and 5 spice and cook until browned. Add hoisin, teriyaki, soy sauce, and salt and combine mixture. Then add carrots, water chestnuts, and cashews and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with lettuce leaves and enjoy. 

This meal is also great because it can be made in one pan and is pretty easy to throw together.

Yummy... 

Dessert Party and Super Bowl kind of weekend

This weekend was filled with good food that I did not make. Saturday, Emily M. had a dessert party where she made about 10 different desserts which included lemon squares, chocolate butter scotch oatmeal cookies, strawberry cupcakes, and Oreo truffles. Everything was awesome but I thought the Oreo truffles were pretty intriguing.

Emily M.'s Oreo Truffle Recipe:

12 oz milk chocolate chips

8 oz cream cheese

12 oz Oreo cookies, crushed

Blend crushed Oreos with cream cheese. Roll into bite sized balls and chill until solid. Melt chocolate chips until smooth consistency (melt chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until completely melted). Dip Oreo balls into melted chocolate and let set.

The next night, we arrived at Josh's place for the Super Bowl.

He made a huge Primanti Brothers sub with all the fixings, including the french fries, in honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This bad boy had meat, cheese, cole slaw, tomatoes, and french fries. Yum.

We were sufficiently full by the end of this weekend :)

Vanilla Infused Bourbon

Jake has been wanting to try infusing his Bourbon for a while now. He came across a recipe for vanilla infused Bourbon and decided to give it a shot.

We bought two vanilla beans and split them with a knife. We also scraped the seeds out of one of the beans.

Then Jake threw the two beans and seeds into 1.25 liters of Jim Beam Bourbon. (He poured the Bourbon into an Evan Williams bottle.)

In 48 hours Jake is going to remove the seeds from the beans and just leave the seeds in the Bourbon. He'll then taste it in 4 days and decide if he wants to let it infuse longer. Once the Bourbon is infused , Jake will use a coffee filter to remove the seeds from the Bourbon.

Recipe:

2 vanilla beans split down middle

1.25 liters Bourbon

Remove seeds from one bean. Add both beans and seeds to Bourbon. In 48 hours remove seeds from beans. Throw rinds out and put seeds back into Bourbon. Taste in 4 days and once bourbon is infused, pass the liquid through coffee filters to remove seeds and enjoy.

Beef Welligton Bites failure...

There are some nights where I look in the fridge, see some ingredients that are calling my name, and I whip up a wonderful dinner from scratch without a recipe. Last night was not one of these times. I saw puff pastry and some beef tenderloin and decided that Beef Wellington would be a tasty dinner. Well after over cooking and under seasoning the beef I came up with this:

 I then tried adding a spicy mustard white wine reduction sauce:

Big ambitions but still a flop. I'm not going to post this recipe until I tweak it.

Week 2, Run 3

Today was my second long run which was 3 miles. Luckily it was above 40 degrees and sunny outside so I happily went on my first outside run in weeks. The run went so much better then my previous runs on the treadmill.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 28:33
Time per Mile: 9:31

This run helped boost my confidence that I will be able to increase my mileage since I felt like I was running at a steady pace the whole time and wasn't overwhelmed by the distance increase.