For the bridal shower I hosted a few weeks ago, I knew what kind of cupcakes I was going to make. But how was I going to display them? Then I remembered I had seen a tutorial on how to make your own cupcake tower on Annie’s Eats blog. The nice thing about making your own cupcake tower is that you are able to make it fit whatever theme your party is. I am looking forward to football season so I can make a Penn State cupcake tower.

If you want to make this, Annie has a terrific tutorial on her blog and you can find that here. The one thing I did differently was instead of using a round foam disc, my father-in-law made me a round wooden disc. I felt that would going to give it more stability, but I’m sure using the foam disc will work out just fine. I like the wooden bottom because I can reuse it for other cupcake towers.

For the cupcakes I made Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting and I hollowed out the center and filled it with ganache. To put ganache in the middle of a cupcake is easy. Take a sharp knife and cut a little hole in the top-middle of the cupcake. Take it out, but be careful to leave the top so you can put it back on the cupcake once you are done with the filling. Once you have your hole fill it with desired filling and place the “lid” back on and frost as usual.

Ganache:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

1. Cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.
2. Let sit in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Take melon baller or spoon ganache in the middle of the cupcakes.

Source: Ina Garten via Food Network