Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

This past weekend I got to meet up with some people from my neighborhood (who I've met through Twitter) for a doughnut taste off at one of our local restaurants. The plan was for them to try my baked caramel apple doughnuts and for me to get to try the restaurant's delicious fried yeast doughnuts. However, me being me, I decided making only doughnuts was not enough and I got ambitious and made some cupcakes as well.  

 

May I present my chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with peppermint buttercream. Mmm. This recipe combination has been in my head for awhile now. I was planning to wait and make them for an upcoming holiday party but I just couldn't hold out that long. It combines two of my favorite go-to recipes into one.

I've posted about this chocolate cupcake recipe a few times before but I'm not sure I've actually posted the recipe. It's my favorite because it's super simple. I can just whisk it together by hand and it only makes a dozen cupcakes so it's great for feeding a smaller group.

Martha Stewart's Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes 
from marthastewart.com
makes 12 cupcakes

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 6 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer or whisk, combine cocoa and 3 tablespoons hot water until a thick paste forms. Add butter, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.

Scoop (or spoon) batter into prepared tin. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Martha's Fluffy Buttercream

modified from marthastewart.com

enough to frost 12 cupcakes

• 3/4 butter, softened 
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add peppermint extract. Reduce speed to low; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, raising to high speed for 10 seconds after each addition. The whole process should take about 5 minutes total. 

This is how I get the frosting into the piping bag. Just put the bag into a tall glass and fold the top over the outside of the glass to keep the top open. This leaves both hands free to get the frosting into the piping bag. So much easier this way. My favorite glass to use is a pint glass from a local brewery. It's just the right size for the disposable piping bags.

And here's the finished product...

I sprinkled some crushed candy cane on top to finish them off. These were most definitely a hit. I had some friends over later in the day and they were arguing over who was going to get the last one. I'm not usually huge on mint, or frosting, but I was eating the leftovers straight out of the piping bag. It's pretty unusual for me. Sometimes all it takes is a slight change to a recipe that you're already really familiar with to make it something totally different and so much better. I wouldn't have thought a little mint extract could be so delicious. 

Have you ever made a small change to a recipe that made a really big difference to the flavor?