The Lil' Black and White

Hello everyone. I love to bake and I've always wanted to be in one of the contests on TV like cupcake wars or something like that. Chances are that I won't ever get to so, I am entering into an online contest. Its the Ice Cream Cupcake Contest put on by The Cupcake Project and Scoopalicous. The following recipe is my entry. I'm calling them, Lil' Black and Whites. They are amazingly simple, but soooo good.

For the Cupcakes themselves:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature.

2/3 cup granulated white sugar.

3 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Using a mini muffin pan sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray, evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let mini cupcakes cool before continuing to the next step.

(Cupcake recipe was adapted from http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html#ixzz1NJKWAesC)

For the chocolate ganache:

Combine 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1 tablespoon of butter (or 1/4 cup heavy cream) and a half bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a melting pot. Once melted, remove from heat. (For best results, let ganache slightly cool before applying to cupcakes.)

Putting the cupcake together:

After your cupcakes have cooled, take a small spoon or some kind of small utensil and scoop out a bowl into the top of your cupcakes.

Now that you have scooped out a bowl, fill the bowl with vanilla bean ice cream and smooth off the top.

The next step is to put the chocolate ganache on top of the cupcake. I've found that it works best if you put your cupcakes in the freezer for a little bit to make sure your ice cream is hard.

Now, the cupcakes need to go back to the freezer to let the ganache harden and the ice cream stay frozen. Keep them in the freezer till about ten minutes before you are ready to serve. After about ten minutes out, the cake will soften and you'll have yourself "Lil' Black and Whites." Enjoy with caution!