Cupcakes

with chocolate coconut milk ganache.

One of the first times i realized how completely and totally smitten i was with boone was a sunday in atlanta after church. afterwards we ended up at brunch at the flying biscuit, a quirky, crunchy brunch-lunch spot in decatur where everything is made from whole grains and is a little bit vegetarian and a little bit paula deen. i have absolutely no recollection of what we ate that day, but i remember sitting on the closed patio under an enormous heater when it was just a little too cold to be on any sort of patio and i remember laughing so hard. I remember lingering over my food so we could keep talking, and then slowly getting up from the table so some truly patient soul could finally eat.

all that is to say, the flying biscuit played a role in our courtship, and in several other friendships we built in the atl (right betty? craig? jen?) so i was glad to end up with boone’s mom’s copy of the flying biscuit cafe cookbook after a visit to north carolina.

i had an urge to bake last sunday after church and pulled out this cookbook to try the bourbon chocolate cake recipe i’d seen a few days before. bourbon has a special place in southern culture, so it seems fitting that a southern cake involve a little of the stuff. since it wasn’t anyone’s birthday, and since just the image of TWO people eating ONE cake gives me double chins, i went with cupcakes…much easier to share, to store, to eat without guilt. 😉

a note about these little fellas: they are delicious and stay moist for days. also, if you eat one and go to a business meeting, people might just smell the alcohol on your breath and ask if you had a toddy. if you don’t want to share the cupcakes, don’t deny it. 😉

What you need:

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups hot (not boiled) bourbon

1/4 cup hot coffee

5 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

1.2 cup unsalted, softened butter

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs at room temp.

For the ganache:

6 oz semisweet chocolate, cut into pieces

6 oz unsweetened coconut milk

you can also make the kind the flying biscuit tells you to make that involves 12 oz semisweet chocolate and 1 cup heavy cream, but this tasted AMAZING and involved significantly fewer calories.

What you do:

preheat that over to 275 and flour, line or spray your cake pan or muffin tins. (two 9″ cake pans or 24 cupcake tins) sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

after you cut up the chocolate and butter, combine it with the hot bourbon and coffee. Cover it and let is stand until the chocolate and butter are entirely melted.

this is what the bourbon looks like… can you smell it yet?

apparently my bourbon and my coffee weren’t hot enough (although they were steaming like crazy) so I had to pop it all in the microwave for a few seconds (don’t worry, i didn’t use the metal bowl.) once everything is melted, stir in the sugar and let it stand and cool. using a wire whisk, add the flour a little bit at a time , then add in the eggs and the vanilla. pour the batter into the cake pans, bake about 35-45 minutes, (or until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake bounces back after you push gently on it).

while you wait on the little fellas to bake (or cool, whatever) it’s time to make the ganache!this is so easy that you may think you’re doing it wrong…but no.
so, cut up your chocolate and heat up the coconut milk (or heavy cream) until it’s scalded but not boiling. pour it over your chocolate and stir until it’s completely melted. stir or whisk it to give it some body, and then let it cool. note: it WILL be runny at first, but as it cools it will become shiny and thick, and be completely spreadable. if you use heavy cream (but why bother?) you can use a mixer to beat the ganache until it’s fluffy, but seriously, why bother when people can’t even taste the coconut and think it’s the real thing? (true story).

spread the ganche over the cupcakes or cake, and voila’. a bourbon chocolate cupcake.

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