Groot Cupcakes (Mont Blanc Cupcakes)

Remember how I gushed about Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of posts back?* Apparently, I wasn’t done with it. (Wait, have you watched it yet?  Can you please? It’s totally awesome. Thanks.) The latest Marvel movie had me racking my brain for a dessert idea and naturally I started with my favorite character of the group, Groot. To be honest, I thought that the idea of Groot was silly. Really, a talking tree that only says, “I am Groot” exclusively in that order? But as the movie went on, the simplest character became the most interesting and loveable of them all.
A Mont Blanc is a chestnut flavored dessert. The chestnut cream is traditionally piled high and topped with powdered sugar which resembles a snow capped mountain. Hence the name, Mont Blanc, just like the mountain that borders France and Italy. The tan color of the chestnut cream is similar to the color of tree bark so instead of piling up the cream in a circle, I decided to turn it into Groot’s face.  
This particular Groot cupcake starts with a syrup soaked genoise cake. It is then filled with chestnut cream and dipped in a perfectly shiny chocolate ganache. (Seriously, so shiny.  I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them.) It is then topped with more chestnut cream, only this time it is piped with a multi-hole pastry tip in the shape of Groot’s face.
A few fondant additions later, you have your very own mini swarm of Groots.** Super cute and perfect for a Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy or Superhero themed party, I hope you give it a try for your next gathering.
Groot Cupcakes (Mont Blanc Cupcakes)

Genoise Cake

Ingredients:
5 large eggs, room temperature
⅔ c. sugar
½ tbsp. corn syrup
1 ⅓ c. cake flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs until homogenous.
3. Add the sugar and corn syrup to the eggs and mix on high speed until thickened, lightened and a ribbon forms when whisk is lifted.
4. Sift the cake flour into the egg mixture and fold until no traces of the flour remain.
5. In a separate bowl mix vanilla extract, butter, milk and vegetable oil and mix into the flour mixture.
6. Fill the cupcake liners with batter and bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool on a cooling rack.

Simple Syrup

Ingredients
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. water

Instructions

1. In a small pot, heat sugar and water until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside and let cool.

Chestnut Pastry Cream

Ingredients
2 c. milk
¼ c. sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
¼ c. cornstarch
¼ c. sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
320 g. chestnuts, roasted and peeled
¼ c. heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring milk and ¼ c. sugar to a boil.
2. In another medium bowl, mix egg yolks, egg, cornstarch and ¼ c. sugar until a paste forms.
3. Using a ladle, drizzle a ladleful of milk while continuously whisking the egg mixture. Continue to drizzle in hot milk a little at a time until you mix in ¾ of the milk.
4. Take the egg milk mixture and pour it into the saucepan with the remaining milk.
5. Cook the mixture while stirring constantly over medium heat until mixture is thickened and pudding like.
6. Remove saucepan from heat and mix in butter and vanilla extract. Set aside.
7. In a food processor, puree chestnuts until very fine.
8. Add the pastry cream and process until a smooth paste forms.
9. Add the heavy whipping cream and process until completely mixed in.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
8 oz. good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
¾ c. heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 pinch kosher salt

Instructions

1. Bring whipping cream and sugar to a boil in either a saucepan or microwave.***
2. In a medium bowl, pour hot cream mixture over the chopped chocolate.
3. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then whisk mixture until smooth.
4. Add the butter and salt and mix until fully incorporated.

Fondant Pieces

You will need:
green fondant
black fondant
white fondant

Instructions

For the leaves:

1. Pinch off tiny pieces of green fondant and form shapes of leaves by molding one end narrower than the other side.

For the eyes:

1. Roll out black fondant ⅛ in. thick. Cut out circles that are ¾ in. in diameter.  (I used the end of a fat bubble tea straw.)
2. Pinch off tiny pieces of white fondant and make tiny circles to press flat onto the black fondant. Remember to place the pieces off center to avoid deadpan eyes. (I placed mine to in the north east quadrant of the eyes.)

Assembly

1. With a pastry brush, brush the tops of cooled cupcakes with the simple syrup.
2. Let it rest 5 minutes and go over it once more with the simple syrup.
3. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a narrow plain pastry tip with half of the chestnut pastry cream; fill each cupcake with about a tablespoon of pastry cream.
4. Dip the tops of the cupcake with the chocolate ganache, and let set in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
5. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a multi-hole pastry tip, with more chestnut pastry cream.
6. Using a stead pressure, draw Groot’s face using an up and down motion. Make sure you go over the each area several times to give it a 3D effect.
7. Carefully place the fondant eyes in the center of the face and arrange the fondant leaves at the top of the head. Remember the fondant WILL melt in time, do not place the fondant pieces until you are ready to serve or as close to the serving time as possible.

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*If you don’t know by now, I’m into the geek/nerd culture.  I wouldn’t say I’m fully immersed it in, but maybe waist deep.
** Warning about the fondant addition.  Because the fondant is resting on top of a pile of pastry cream, the fondant will melt with time.  I would give you a solid hour before it starts to melt.  Tread lightly and be aware. 🙂
*** If using the microwave, be careful not to overheat it.  It will bubble over, leaving you a large mess to clean… not that this happened to me.  No, it totally did.  Don’t be like me.

Chocolate ganache recipe adapted from recipe girl.