Been ages since i last used the oven. Up till now, i am still baking with my broken oven. The front piece of glass came off so I have to get someone to fix it back. I was thinking of using 3M tape to stick it back but ... HMMM. I have been wanting to try making chocolate ganache for forever but too lazy to buy heavy cream since i have to travel ALL THE WAY TO PHOON HUAT just to get heavy cream. I have tried to make chocolate ganache for a few times but they were pretty fail. My very first time: COMPLETE FAILURE. Although this time isn't perfect yet but at least there were improvements. The trick is to use heavy cream. NOT thickened cream. I used thickened cream for my first attempt and that explained why it was so liquified. To make ganache, you should get cream of at least 38% fat content.  But supermarkets hardly sell heavy cream. I have never seen heavy cream sold in supermarkets, even the higher end ones. So do not  just simply substitute thickened cream for heavy cream. Abandon that misconception. They are DIFFERENT. To double confirm, check the fat content, you'll never go wrong with that. Made this with my favourite chocolate cake recipe. So far, i have been using that chocolate recipe for my chocolate cupcakes. Just make some slight changes here and there.



Recipe: 

Cupcake: [ Makes about 12 small cupcakes or 6 medium cupcakes]

45 grams all purpose flour
10 grams good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( As this is a really low cake, I added slightly more baking powder )
Pinch of salt
55 grams good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, can be cold or at room temperature
90 grams caster sugar
2 eggs

- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

- Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Use a wire whisk and whisk the dry ingredients together until they are all well-mixed and evenly distributed.

- Measure the dark chocolate and unsalted butter in a large heatproof bowl and melt them over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can microwave them under medium high heat at 15-25s interval. Stirring during each interval.

- Remove the heatproof bowl from the pot/microwave. Add in the caster sugar and whisk gently – not all of the sugar will dissolve. Mixture’ll be a little grainy Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to cool down slightly (the eggs will scramble if added to a hot mixture).

- Crack in one egg into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture (yes, same wire whisk!) for 30 seconds until it is fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg, and then whisk in the vanilla extract.

- Sift a third of flour mixture into the chocolate batter and folding gently using a large metal spoon or rubber spatula. until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated

- Bake for about 15 mins ( for small size cupcakes).

- Let it cool before you top with the chocolate Ganache.

Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients: ( I'll update this when i get home) 

Heavy cream

Chocolate

2 tbsp of honey ( optional. For glossy appearance)