A Meal Without Chocolate is like a Day Without Sun.

I have been on an UNNATURALLY healthy diet lately (thus the lack of posts), but this weekend I decided to take a break from it and have some fun. I stole the recipe for these almond raspberry cupcakes with chocolate ganache from my new favorite blog: Joy the Baker! They are delicious! Light and fluffy and the frosting is perfect (not too over-the-top like disgusting buttercream frosting). PLUS, they are so easy to make you can knock them out in half an hour. 

Get together: 

1 c. all purpose flour 

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 

1/8 tsp. salt 

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened 

1/2 c. sugar 

1 large egg 

1/4 tsp. almond extract [personally I think these could use 1/2 tsp.] 

1/2 c. whole milk 

1/3 cup raspberries roughly chopped

3/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips 

1/4 c. heavy whipping cream 

First things first - preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Next, line a muffin tin with liners [or parchment paper]. 

Now mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In another bowl beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy on a medium speed. Slowly add the egg and almond extract. Then beat in half of your flour mixture, followed by the milk, and then the last half of the flour mixture. Be careful to beat together until just barely mixed. 

And that's it! Pour the batter into your muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes! 

Yum yum yummmmmmmm. How delicious do those look?! The almond extract gives the cupcakes another dimension of flavor that make these cupcakes stand out against others. What I really liked about these cupcakes was that they weren't overly sweet. The raspberries were tart enough to balance out the richness of the chocolate ganache. 








The chocolate ganache is a little tricky, but truly worth it. Set the chocolate chips aside in a small bowl. Take the heavy whipping cream and heat it in a saucepan over medium heat until it begins to simmer (be careful not to burn it). Pour the warmed cream evenly over the chocolate chips and let it sit for about a minute before you stir the two together. The recipe says this will be sufficient to melt the chocolate, but of course it didn't work for me. I let the chocolate and cream mixture sit on top of my oven and let the heat from the baking cupcakes melt the rest of the chips (and if even this method fails you the Barefoot Contessa swears by microwaving chocolate so throw that bowl in the microwave!). Then spread heaping amounts over your cupcakes and enjoy! 






So what do you think? Why is the combination of chocolate and raspberries so damn good?!