Life by Chocolate

This is a recipe by the Pioneer Woman, and after seeing her post I really wanted to try this. The cupcakes are made from her texas sheet cake recipe, which i've made before and do like. To be honest, I was a little dissapointed with this one. After I baked these, I liked them. But then I put the ganache on top.. i'm not a big fan of warm ganache.. So then I stored them in the refrigerator but that made the Hershey kiss inside really hard! So that was my problem with it. Don't get me wrong, I still ate them, but it wasn't exactely what I was expecting or hoping for. I haven't tried the cherry version though, I think that could be good! But if you make these, let me know what you think! Oh yeah, this is one of those recipes that don't hold true to the servings indicated. For the full recipe the servings here says it's 18. I made 1/2 batch and had about 20. Way more than I wanted!!
Life by Chocolate
The Pioneer Woman

CUPCAKES
2 cups Sugar
2 cups All-purpose Flour
¼ teaspoons Salt
½ cups Buttermilk
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 sticks 1 Cup Butter
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa Powder
1 cup Water, Boiling
18 whole Hershey's Kisses, Unwrapped
Canned Pitted Cherries (optional)
GANACHE
8 ounces, weight Bittersweet Chocolate
1 cup Heavy Cream
6 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 18 muffin cups (mini muffin pan) with baking spray.
To make the cake batter, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate container, combine buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside.
In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and stir to combine. Add boiling water, allow to bubble for a few seconds, then turn off heat.
Pour chocolate mixture over flour mixture. Stir a few times to cool the chocolate. Pour buttermilk mixture over the top and stir to combine.
Pour 1/4 cup cake batter into each muffin cup. Lightly set one kiss in the middle of each cupcake; do not press down.
(Alternately, you can add 3 canned, pitted cherries to each muffin cup before adding the batter.)
Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove cupcakes and allow to cool on a baking rack.
To make the ganache, heat cream and corn syrup over medium heat. Chop chocolate and add to a bowl. Add vanilla to cream mixture, then pour cream mixture over the top of the chopped chocolate. Whisk together until melted, smooth, and glossy.
Dunk cupcakes in ganache. Allow to cool and set before serving.