Ingredients

Instructions

  1. To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer; add vanilla and eggs.
  3. Sift dry ingredients together and add in 3 stages, alternating with the buttermilk.
  4. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
  5. Fill each about three-quarters full with batter.
  6. Bake 15-20 minutes.
  7. To make pastry cream: Bring milk just to boil in medium saucepan.
  8. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.
  9. Stir just a little of the hot milk into the egg mixture to equalize the temperatures.
  10. Add a little more hot milk to the egg mixture and stir well again.
  11. Then add all of the hot milk and stir.
  12. Return mixture to saucepan; whisk over low heat constantly until mixture becomes thick.
  13. Pour pastry cream into clean bowl and whisk in vanilla.
  14. Whisk in butter 1 ounce at a time until smooth.
  15. Cover surface with plastic wrap and chill until cool.
  16. Fold whipped cream into chilled pastry cream.
  17. To make chocolate glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to boil.
  18. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
  19. Let hot cream sit on the chocolate for about 5 minutes.
  20. Stir until chocolate is dissolved and smooth.
  21. Stir in butter.
  22. To assemble: Fill pastry bag with pastry cream; poke tip of pastry bag into top of each cupcake and inject each with some pastry cream.
  23. OR slice each cupcake in half horizontally and spread some pastry cream in between layers.
  24. OR remove a cone-shaped section from center of cupcake, fill hole with pastry cream and then replace cake piece.
  25. Drizzle chocolate glaze over top of each cupcake.