After Dinner Mint Cupcakes

The rich and fresh combination of Chocolate and Mint seemed the perfect way to ease myself into Christmas baking, so last week I made these delicious cupcakes for the birthday shout for one of my staff, Stacey.

I have had these in my head to make for a long time, and have subconsciously collected various amounts of mint colour wrappers and baubles for such an occasion as this. I love love love chocolate and mint - I always pick the mint chocolates first out of a chocolate box, and cherished my supplies of York peppermint patties every time Matt came home from the USA. While musing on these treats, I thought isn't it interesting how the best flavour combinations are also so visually appealing -  these mint green and chocolate brown cupcakes create a beautiful contrast.

It just so happens they taste as good as they look - rich, tender chocolate cupcakes with an minty surprise in the middle, with fresh choc-mint icing. Perfect after dinner, or before....up to you :)

After Dinner Mint Cupcakes

Makes approx. 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
115g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream or greek yoghurt

1 bag of Cadbury After Dinner Mints

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners; set aside (I chose half chocolate brown paper liners, half mint green foil liners)

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add vanilla.. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined. 

Sprinkle 1/3 of the flour mixture into the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Add half of the sour cream or yoghurt, mixing until just combined. Repeat, alternating the remaining flour and yoghurt until just mixed together.

Place 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter into each prepared muffin cup. Lay an after dinner mint in each cup and press down gently. Place another 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter on top of each patty, you want them to be about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes spring back lightly when touched.

Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Mint Buttercream and Choc/Mint Buttercream frosting

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

450g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Food coloring

Dutch-processed cocoa

To make the frosting: In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter for about 30 seconds. Beat in the sugar and salt until combined. Add 1 tablespoon milk and whisk on high for 3 to 4 minutes, until light and fluffy. If the frosting is too thick, add more milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Remember you want it to be relatively thick so it will hold when you pipe it. Whisk in the peppermint extract - you may want to start with half a teaspoon, and add more to taste, depending on how 'minty' you want your icing to be.

Divide the frosting into 2 parts, leave one part in the mixer bowl and put the rest into another small bowl.

To make the mint green icing, add a TINY amount of Wilton Aqua gel food colouring, or a drop of green and blue normal colouring. Remember you can always add more colour but you can't take it out! Mix well together until uniform in colour.

To make the choc mint icing, add about 3 tablespoons of dutch-processed cocoa, and beat again until fully mixed. Add more or less cocoa depending on how dark you want your icing.

To decorate these cupcakes, I piped on the frosting with a Wilton 1A open circular tip, icing the mint liner cupcakes with the choc-mint icing, and the brown liner cupcakes with the mint green icing. Sprinkle aqua baubles on the choc iced ones, and I used Valhrona Crispy Chocolate pearls on the mint ones (These are so yummy!)

Cut your remaining after dinner mints in half, and press a half into the top of each cupcake.

Voila!