So it isn't any one's birthday, and I wasn't baking for no reason, so I was baking for the only other reason, someone is leaving work. I'm sad to see her go, but she's off to greener pastures. When I found out, I offered cupcakes, as always. I asked if she wanted alcohol and I got a no. The only request I got was for ganache. I can handle that.
The idea for these cupcakes has been sitting in my head for a while now (just without the ganache). These are kind of a Frankenstein cupcakes you could say. I knew exactly every element of these cupcakes that I wanted. I wanted a pretzel crust on the bottom, a chocolate cupcake, and chocolate icing to roll in pretzel crumbs... All to be topped off with an actual chocolate covered pretzel. The Internet is a beautiful resource. I looked up recipes for all the stuff plus the chocolate ganache and mathed the amounts in the recipes to where they needed to be.
For the various steps of baking these cupcakes I enlisted the help of some very lovely, very beautiful, and if you ask my mother, very loud assistants. It made for quick work, especially for the end steps. It's so much more fun baking with company, it might be my new thing.
The first thing you need to do is make the ganache. It needs time to cool. The few recipes that I read suggested letting it cool overnight. I made mine first thing in the morning. I made the recipe as I found in on the website. I obviously didn't know how much I would need until the end. To save you some ingredients, you can make half of what the recipe calls for. For how intimidating making something fancy sounding can be, this was simple. One of my magnificent assistants and I chopped up all the chocolate. I used semisweet baking chocolate. The kind that comes in individually wrapped squares. We poured the heated heavy cream over the chocolate and it melted instantly. We whisked it, and whisked it, and whisked it. At first it just looked like milk with brown specks in it and melty chocolate settled in the bottom of the bowl, and then, all of a sudden, like magic, it turned into gorgeously smooth liquid chocolate. The ganache got poured into a 9x13 cake pan so it would cool faster, since I failed to do it overnight.
The next element of my chocolate covered pretzel cupcakes was the pretzel crust. The recipe I found for this was enough to make a dozen cupcakes. I was expecting to make 2 dozen cupcakes so I initially doubled the measurements. Initially the mixture was a little buttery so I added extra pretzel crumbs until there wasn't a lot of excess butter.
Then, I made the cupcakes. I also doubled this recipe. It was a lot of ingredients to fit into the stand mixer. To avoid a huge mess, put a hand towel over the head of the mixer and the mixing bowl to prevent the dry ingredients from flying everywhere. A little will still find its' way out of the sides, but at least the mess is more concentrated and not all over you. I had enough batter to fill the anticipated 24 already pretzel-crust-filled liners and then some. I could have easily whipped up some more crust, but I just decided to do a few without it. No harm, no foul. The cupcakes with the crust were in the oven for about 10 more minutes than the ones without it. Those were okay to come out around 20 minutes. I think all that butter in the crust and the cupcakes made everything super moist, that's my cupcake hypothesis at least.
This is where I thoroughly take advantage of having assistants. Assistant Task #1: Core the cupcakes. I got her to use the apple corer and make a divot in the top of the cupcakes, instead of using the cupcake corer and taking the whole middle out. The ganache was really rich so I didn't want it to be too much. Then each little cupcake got handed off to the next step. Assistant Task #2: Fill the cupcakes. With a melon baller to scoop the ganache and a second spoon to help get it into the cupcake, my lovely helper filled every cupcake. In the meantime... Assistant Task #3: Help make the icing. While the first 2 steps were being taken care of, my third aide and I whipped up the icing. It was fairly easy, yet a little different than what I'm used to. I normally just use all butter instead of butter and solid shortening, and I usually use water instead of milk, because if you use milk, they need to stay in the fridge. Since I knew that these cupcakes were only going to be around for a few more hours, I strayed away from what I know and tried something different. 
After 2 out of my 3 assistants left to get ready for work later that night, my remaining loyal helper was still there to help me finish up these cupcakes. She crushed up some more pretzels and I piped on the chocolate icing. It doesn't have to look pretty since you're not going to see it. As I finished icing the cupcakes, she took them and plopped the tops into a bowl of the pretzel crumbs. When that was accomplished, we topped each yummy Frankenstein-ed treat off with a chocolate covered pretzel.
These mash-up cupcakes appeal to chocolate lovers for sure. It's like the three Musketeers of chocolate. The cake: moist and sweet. The ganache: smooth and rich. And the icing: creamy and delicious. A chocolate trifecta. The pretzel crust was a little crumbly. It might have been the butter, or it might have been too pretzel. I'll have to mess with that and figure that one out. The bits of pretzels on top were helpful in trying to offset the chocolate with some saltiness, but I don't think it got the job done. Possibly without a chocolate element the pretzels could have balanced out alright. Still, these cupcakes were awesome. This is definitely a better, sweeter way to think about Frankenstein.
I made my ganache according to this recipe and had a ton left over, half of this would be enough for 2 dozen cupcakes.
from easy-cake-ideas.comChocolate Ganache Ingredients
2 c heavy cream
16 oz chocolate, finely chopped
Chocolate Ganache How to
1. Put cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 2-3 minutes, until just about to boil.
2. Put chocolate in a medium sized glass bowl and put hot cream over.
3. Let sit for a minute or two then stir with wooden spoon until completely smooth.
4. Chill the ganache to a thick spreading consistency. This takes several hour (Chill overnight and stir right before using)
Double the ingredients listed
from howsweeteats.com
Pretzel Crust Ingredients
1 1/4 c crushed, salted pretzels
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted
Pretzel Crust How to
1. Combine pretzels and butter in a bowl and stir until entire mixture is moistened.
2. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop pretzels into the bottom of each liner. Use the back of the spoon to flatten and press the pretzels together.
Double the recipe for 2 dozen cupcakes
from marthastewart.com
Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients
3/4 c cocoa powder
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c unsalted butter
1 c sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sour cream
Chocolate Cupcake How to
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour.
3. Pour batter into cup, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. 20-25 minutes.
4. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Leave recipe as is! It's the perfect amount of icing.
from wilton.com
Dark Chocolate Icing Ingredients
1/2 c solid vegetable shortening
1/2 c butter
1 c cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
4 c powdered sugar
4-5 Tbsp milk
3-4 Tbsp light corn syrup (optional)
Icing How to
1. Cream shortening and butter with mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium. Scrape sides and bottom often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium until light and fluffy.
2. Add 3-4 tablespoons of corn syrup per recipe to thin icing if desired.
