Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes (With A Creamy Chocolate Blender Ganache)

24 paper liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)
2 milk-chocolate bars (1.55 ounces each)
1 package (18.5 ounces) plain butter recipe fudge cake mix
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Break the chocolate bars into quarters, stack them on top of each other, and slice down the short end of the stack with a sharp knife. You will have about 1 cup of 1/4-inch shavings. Set them aside. Fold in the slivers of milk chocolate for fun little bites of contrasting flavor and color.

Place the cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Bleand with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of a the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and blend for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thickened and smooth. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.
Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger. 20 to 23 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcakes liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Bake at 350

Notes: It's important to soften the cram cheese thoroughly before beginning this recipe. This recipe. If the cream cheese is cold, it will lump up in the batter and no matter how much you blend won't be able to rid the batter of the those white lumps. Remove the cream cheese from the fridge and hour before.