Yellow Cake (not from Box) with Chocolate Ganache

These where a request from a friend for his birthday. I really didn't want to make a box cake so I found this recipe on Pintrest and it was amazing! 

Source for the cupcakes:  Shelly Kaldunski's, Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup whole milk

Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla to this mixture, and beat until well combined.  Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter/sugar mixture, until no traces of flour remain.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.  Bake for about 18-20 minutes.  Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling get the ganache ready:

Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl.  Warm the cream in a small saucepan over low heat-just until it starts to steam and little bubbles form around the sides of the pan.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for a minute.  Whisk the chocolate chips and cream until smooth--let it cool for about 5 minutes.  Take a cupcake, turn it upside down, dip it in the ganache--let the excess drip off and turn the cupcake top side up--viola!  Do this with each cupcake until they are all coated with ganache. Let the cupcakes cool and serve. 

Fact of the Week: January 20, 2014

Two-thirds of Antarctica is a high, cold desert known as East Antarctica; This section has an average altitude of about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles), higher than the American Colorado Plateau. It has a land area about the size of Australia. There is enough water stored in the East Antarctic ice sheet to raise sea levels by 60 meter (197 feet).

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Fact of the Week: January 13, 2014

There are more Public Libraries than McDonalds in the U.S. There are 16,604 libraries and only 14,000 McDonalds in our country.

Cites:
http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/ola/quotablefacts/QuotableFacts2010.pdf
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/student_zone/FAQs.html

Fact of the Week: January 27, 2014

The lungs of the world is not the rainforest but the oceans.  Phytoplankton is estimated to continburting more than half of all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Cite:
Oceanic Research Group
UCSB Science Line

Salted Caramel Cake Truffles

These bite sized cake truffles require no baking and have a great taste. The rolling of the cake around the caramel does take awhile to complete, but its worth the time! I brought these in to work for the solstice and pretty much everyone loved them! Except for the girl who is allergic to chocolate. Worst allergy ever, right? 

Sea Salt on the outside, caramel on the inside! 

Ingredients: 

3 cups Chocolate Cake Mix (I used Pamela's gluten free mix) 

3 Tblsp. Honey 

3/4 cups Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 bag of Caramels 

Melting Chocolate

Sea Salt  

Directions: 

In a mixing bowl combine Cake Mix, Honey and Sweetened Condensed Milk, and stir to combine.This mixture should be quite solid and not runny, but not so dry that you can’t mold it into balls. If you find that your mixture is a little too runny, add a touch more cake mix. If it’s a little too dry, add more sweetened condensed milk/honey.

After you've made the dough, cut the caramels into quarters. Roll the dough into a ball with a piece of caramel in the center. 

Lay parchment paper down on a cookie sheet or pan.

Melt the dipping chocolate, and dip the chilled cake batter balls into melted chocolate. After the balls are dipped in chocolate, place on parchment paper and sprinkle sea salt on top. 

Place truffles in freezer or fridge to set up.

Yields: 40 to 50 truffles depending on size preference. 

Fact of the Week: January 6, 2014

If you find a calendar from 1986, 1997 or 2003 laying around you can reuse it this year, since all the dates line up with 2014.

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Image from Google