I love to make sweet treats for my sweetheart each year on Valentine's Day. I have some heart shaped pans, so many years, I make a heart cake or even a heart cookie cake. This year, I just wasn't feeling the heart shaped pan, so I opted for cupcakes. I also knew that its way easier to share leftover cupcakes than cake. I tried this recipe for Molten Chocolate Cupcakes. These cupcakes were fairly easy to make, tasted amazing, and were loved by everyone who shared them! We ended up sharing some with Mike's coworkers and we also took some to share with our friends at Whitestone, leaving plenty for us to enjoy! I started by making the molten part of the cupcake, which was basically a chocolate ganache. I heated up the heavy whipping cream and then stirred in my semi sweet chocolate chips. I put it in the fridge for an hour, taking it out to stir occasionally. Next, I made my cupcake batter. It was pretty standard with a cake mix, water, eggs, oil, and pudding. The biggest difference was the pudding and an extra egg to keep it moist. I put my batter in my muffin liners using a portion scoop. Next, I added a small scoop of the molten mix to each cupcake. I cooked them about 20 minutes. I noticed a burning smell and realized that the molten mix had erupted out of some of the cupcakes, as they were pretty full. (This reminds me, I really need to clean the oven!) The recipe recommended serving the cupcakes warm, but this really didn't work out for us. I made them early because I needed to be out of the kitchen so Mike could make his signature Valentine's dish, chicken parm.

After letting the cupcakes cool, I frosted them with chocolate frosting and topped each with a strawberry half before serving. They were delicious and rich with the added ganache in the center. This is a great recipe and was a perfect way to add a little bit of pizzazz to a traditional chocolate cupcake.

The New Austonian