Homemade "Hostess" Cupcakes

I have been seeing this recipe on several different blogs and every time I think how yummy they look. And who doesn't love a Hostess cupcake?? So this weekend I decided to try them out. We had my sister Beth and her fiance Matt over and another friend and they all really liked them. Joe told me it is definitely a make again recipe. I personally think they are wonderful!

Homemade "Hostess" Cupcakes



Cupcake:
I won't lie to you. I was pressed for time and didn't know how long it would take to fill them and ice them so I used a box mix for chocolate cake. It was Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge. However if you have time making a chocolate cake from scratch would be great!

Filling:
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients into a medal bowl (don't use too small of a bowl because the filling will expand as it gets smooth and creamy) set over a saucepan of simmering water. Beat with a handheld mixer on high for 5-6 minutes, or until smooth and creamy. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue to beat for several more minutes until it has cooled slightly. Reserve about half a cup of filling for piping swirls on the top.

This actually made WAY more filling than I used. I had 24 cupcakes and maybe used a third of the filling including piping the top. I don't know if I just didn't fill the cupcakes as much as others do or if it was just a large batch of filling. In any case you may want to half this.

Chocolate Ganache:
1/4 cup whipping cream
4 ounces (or heaping 1/2 cup) finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips
(the orginal recipe called for bittersweet chocolate but my grocery store was out so I went with the semi-sweet chips and it was fine)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Heat cream until steaming in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Add butter and stir until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl for easier frosting of cupcakes.

Assembly:
Cut a hole in the top of each cupcake about the size of a quarter and remove that portion from the cupcake. I cut the middle section off the round piece that I removed from each cupcake so that I could replace the top once the filling was added.

Fill each cupcake with filling until full and place the top back on. Dip each cupcake into the chocolate ganache. Put into the refrigerator until ganache sets (about 5 to 10 minutes). Pipe swirls onto the top of each cupcake and returned them to the refrigerator to set icing.

Hint: I don't own the tools to pipe so I simply put the filling into a ziplock bag and cut the corner off. For the filling I cut a large piece of the corner off and for the piping I cut a very small piece. This worked great for me even though my skills at the swirls were lacking.