What do you do after, in an attempt to schedule a trip home to see the parents after having moved to a new town, in between friends’ weddings in the old town and an upcoming holiday you’d like to spend with your spouse, you accidentally buy a ticket departing on said spouse’s birthday?

Chocolate ganache may not exactly be a balm for all wounds, but it might be said to help a little of it. These buttermilk cupcakes from Sherry Yard’s cookbook are both rich and delicate, probably a result of the unusual procedure: You blend the eggs and sugar over simmering water, then whip them, off heat, until thick. The souffle-like cupcakes collapsed a bit after baking, leaving cratered tops rather than the typical smooth domes, but that just left more room for ganache.

Buttermilk birthday cupcakes
From Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking
About 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
6 oz (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare some muffin tins.

Triple-sift the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Combine sugar and eggs in the bowl of a standing mixer, or a mixing bowl that will fit into the saucepan. Put the bowl over the water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. (If you have a double boiler and no standing mixer, I don’t see why you shouldn’t just mix the sugar and eggs in the double boiler.) Stick in a thermometer and whisk steadily until the concoction is 110 degrees (2-3 minutes).

Remove bowl from heat and whip on high speed with standing or hand mixer 5-8 minutes, until the eggs have tripled in volume. The mixture will be thick and pale yellow, and form a ribbon when falling from a spatula. Turn the mixer speed to medium and ship for 2 more minutes, then add the melted butter.

Carefully fold in a third of the dry ingredients with a balloon whisk. Fold in a third of the buttermilk, then repeat those two steps until they’re used up. Blend in the vanilla.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins and bake 20 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and spring back when you touch them lightly. Let cupcakes cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Frost with chocolate ganache (below).

Ganache frosting
Makes 2 cups

8 oz bittersweet chocolate
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Chop up the chocolate and melt with the butter in the microwave or in a double boiler. Sift in the powdered sugar and slowly stir it in with a rubber spatula until it smooths out.

Done! Use immediately, or at least within a couple of days. It may need to be beaten in a mixer to regain its pliancy after refrigeration.