Today is my nephew Preston’s third birthday! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to travel to Florida to be there for his birthday party, but it sounds like he had a great time. His party was at Little Gym, and the theme was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. My sister worked her magic again, and made an amazing cake!  All her cakes are amazing, but I think this ranks as her best ever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESTON! AUNT MEGAN LOVES YOU!

Want to make rich cupcakes that look and taste professional, but are easy to make? These cupcakes definitely live up to those standards. They are a chocolate lover’s dream…dark chocolate cake filled with mini chocolate chips and topped with a rich and creamy ganache topping. The best part is the ganache topping is made with only two ingredients!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

adapted from Truffle Lover’s Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 box Pillsbury dark chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 cup water
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/4 cup miniature semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup whipping cream

Directions:

1. Place paper baking cups in muffin pan.
2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Stir in miniature chocolate chips.
3. Divide batter evenly among 24 baking cups.
4. Bake 19 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack.
6. In heavy 1-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium-high heat until hot but not boiling; remove from heat.
7. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips until melted. Let stand 10 minutes.
8. Dip tops of cupcakes in ganache. Top with mini chocolate chips.

When I was dipping the cupcakes in the ganache, I was thinking about how fun it would be to use the treat dipper in my OpenSky store for dipping cupcakes in melted dark chocolate. I imagine it would fun for kids (and adults too) to dip mini cupcakes in the chocolate and then have a variety of sprinkles and toppings to sprinkle on top. Sounds fun…..right?! Well you can get this fancy treat dipper for yourself! For the next 24 hours there is a 25% discount on this fun product. Just click here to order yours and enter DIPPER25 as your coupon code.

On March 14, I am running in the Dallas Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon Race for the Cure. When I was at the Cake Off in NYC, I was discussing the run with Buddy a.k.a. The Cake Boss, and he offered to help raise money for the pink cause…Breast Cancer Research. Because of his generosity, you all have the chance to win a Carlo’s Bakery Merchandise Gift Package including all of the following fun products:

• Autographed picture of the Cake Boss
• Cake Boss Season 1 DVD
• Carlo’s Bakery T-Shirt
• Carlo’s Bakery Sweatshirt
• Carlo’s Bakery Mug
• Carlo’s Bakery Hat

To see more pictures of these products and other fun gifts visit the Carlo’s Bakery Site.

You can have one or many chances to win this awesome merchandise package. To earn an entry into the giveaway donate $1 on my fundraiser page for the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon for the Cure. If you donate more than a dollar, you will get an equal amount of entries. So if you donate $10, you will get 10 entries!

Visit my page to make your donation: http://www.active.com/donate/RNRDallas/MMcCann71 and then leave me a comment telling me that you donated.

The giveaway will close on Friday, March 12 at midnight.

Thank you to Buddy for donating a fun prize and thank you in advance to all those who donate to this wonderful cause!