chocolate mousse cupcakes

hey hey hey. happy new years! I'm kind of late huh? No Susan, you're very late! :'( well not to worry! I made chocolate mousse cupcakes! I've made it in the cake form before but when I looked up chocolate mousse cake on google, I found all these images of beautiful little cakes. I decided to step up to the challenge and guess what? It was so fun! But kind of hard work. I took the recipe from the preview cake I'd made, made cupcakes in the throw away souffle cups from Smart & Finals so they'd be even from top to bottom, I sliced off the tops and sliced em in the middle. Then I piped chocolate mousse in the middle topped it with the tops I had previously cut off and topped em with chocolate ganache. Then I put a strawberry slice on each of em. So really, I combined the classic chocolate mousse (chocolate mousse w/ chocolate sauce that hardens which I took for ganache) with chocolate mousse cake (chocolate cake and chocolate mousse) and got this (chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse with chocolate ganache)! haha. ok. So, lets go on. The first time I made a chocolate mousse cake was when my dad's friend ordered one from me saying that his son liked spiderman. I had heard rumors that chocolate mousse cake was hard to make and so I chose the easiest looking recipe I could find. I came up with this and it tasted good. But I had mistakenly bought double of what was needed because I thought I needed that much and so I got another chance to make it. Let me say, the cake form is easier but this way is so much cuter and much much more rewarding.

Spiderman chocolate mousse cake. stop wondering why I cut off the edges!
instead, focus on the cute spiderman I piped out of ziploc bagss. :o what i learned.. i need to buy some piping bags and new tipss.

Chocolate mousse cupcakes

Chocolate Mousse Cake; makes a 2 9-inch layer cake or 24 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix i used chocolate fudge but you could easily substitute Martha's one bowl chocolate cupcakes if you wanted. It would taste the same.
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cold water
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for two 9-inch layers. Cool and remove from pans.
In a large bowl, mix together sweetened condensed milk and melted chocolate. Gradually stir in the water, then instant pudding until smooth. Chill for at least 30 minutes. <--I did this first. then made the cake.
Remove the chocolate mixture from the refrigerator, and stir to loosen. Fold in whipped cream and return to the refrigerator for at least another hour.
Place one layer of cake onto a serving plate. Top with 1 1/2 cups of the mousse, then cover with the remaining cake layer. Frost with the remaining mousse, and refrigerate until serving. Garnish with fresh fruit or chocolate shavings.

if you wanna make cupcakes, prepare the cupcakes then leave alone til cool. Then, slice off the tops and middle and pipe chocolate mousse in the middle. You can do more than I did since I piped twice and still made leftover. Put the top of the cake back on and pour a teaspoon of ganache on the top. Spread and top with fruit or whatever you want. Cool in fridge til serving time. These taste better when cool.

I made a ganache out of 4 unsweetened baker squares and about 4 ounces of extra dark chocolate. I boiled a 1/2 cup of half and half and poured it on the chopped chocolate. I let it stand for 2 minutes and stirred til smooth. It was wayy too bitter so I added confectioners' sugar and more half and half to reach the consistency I wanted.