Mini Vanilla and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Cupcakes are one of those great treats that transcend generational barriers - children love them, adults secretly (or not so secretly) do too and they're becoming more and more popular as a replacement to ornate 3 tiered wedding cakes or as the finger food of choice for baby showers or birthdays. As I've mentioned before, living in New York pushed me over the edge. I was already cupcake-obsessed, but New York opened a new world I never knew existed. I had never tasted so many different types of cupcakes and I loved every minute of it. Montreal is not really a cupcake town which has encouraged me to make more of them at home.

These cupcakes are an easy classic. The batter is slightly different to your regular cupcake batter (there are no yolks, but airy egg whites instead which give the cupcakes a wonderfully moist texture)and they are topped with a 3 minute chocolate ganache. I've also taken a liking to using silicone cupcake wrappers instead of the paper ones. Not only are they more environmentally friendly for all of us cupcake lovers who go through many, many cupcake wrappers in the year, but they are also easy to clean, don't stick and come in plenty of different colors. Another thing: mini cupcakes are the way to go! If you're planning on trying a lot of different cupcakes for the summer, making them smaller might just let you try that many more!

Mini Vanilla and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache
Recipe (for about 60 mini cupcakes), adapted from Martha Stewart

3 1/4 cups + 1 tablespoon of cake flour (not self-rising)
4 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons of milk
1/2 cup + 6 tablespoons ( 1 3/4 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups of sugar
5 large egg whites at room temperature
2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the vanilla extract and milk.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar in a steady stream and beat until pale and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 batches alternating with 2 additions of the milk mixture. Beat until just combined.

In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks (do not overmix). Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the butter batter to loosen it. Add the rest of the egg whites in 2 batches, gently folding them in. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Place your cupcakes wrappers in the muffin pan. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake come out just clean (bake 22 minutes for normal-sized cupcakes). Leave to cool on a cooling rack before icing.

Chocolate Ganache
6 ounces of semi sweet chocolate
2/3 cup of heavy cream

Finely chop the chocolate and place it in heat proof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil. As soon as the cream starts to boil, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate mixture is homogeneous. Dip each cupcake into the chocolate mixture. Enjoy!