Chocolate Cupcake with chocolate ganache ~ Egg Free

Its been a long while since I baked any kind of cake. These days, whenever I bake, I usually bake muffins and quick breads. But the other day I was browsing the net and I came across a few cakes that gave me serious cake cravings. So I decided to bake one. After browsing some more, I narrowed down on a couple of recipes that I wanted to try, one a carrot cake that I have been wanting to try for a long while, the other a chocolate cake that also looked equally delicious. Finally my chocoholic side won out and I decided to bake chocolate cake.

Usually most cake recipes I come across tend to have both butter and eggs. But this one did not have either, making it easy for me to adapt the recipe. I did not have to figure out which egg substitute would work best, etc:) Also since I don't do this often, I decided to go all out and make a ganache to frost the cake as well. The cake turned out very well, with a nice chocolatey taste that we enjoyed. I made these in a mini muffin tray, just so that it would be easier to do portion control, plus I wanted to share some with my friends. But you could just as easily bake these in a regular muffin pan for regular cup cakes:)

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Ingredients and method to make chocolate cupcakes with ganache (Cake adapted from this recipe)

For the cake

Dry ingredients

I cup unbleached all purpose flour ( maida)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

A pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup water whisked together or 1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

For the chocolate ganache ( see notes, ganache adapted from this recipe)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Pre heat oven @ 350 deg F. Pre line a muffin pans with muffin liners and keep aside.

In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients twice. Make a well in the center and keep aside.

It you are using yogurt, whisk together yogurt and water and keep aside.

Whisk together sugar and oil. Then add buttermilk to it and mix well.

Pour this mixture in well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix slowly until the wet and dry and fully mixed. Add vanilla extract and semi sweet chocolate chips and mix gently.

Spoon the mixture into muffin pans until 3/4th full. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until toothpick / cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. I made it as mini cupcakes, if you make these as regular sized cupcakes it might take a min or two more, do check if done from around the 15th minute. I used a mini muffin tray and it yielded me about 24 mini cup cakes + 1 regular sized one, you could easily make this in a regular muffin tray as well.

For the ganache

Heat cream on the stove top or the microwave until it is scalding hot. Place the semi sweet chocolate chips in a small bowl. Add chocolate chips to this cream and mix well until well blended. Allow the ganache to cool and firm, and frost the cake as desired.

Notes:

I did not want to frost all the cupcakes so did not make too much ganache. With this quantity I was able to frost half the cupcakes. If you want to make enough frosting for all the cakes, you might need double the quantity of ganache.

If you are looking egg free bakes, here are a few more