Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes. I’ve been doing far too many cookies lately, or else various non-cake related things. It is high time that I got my first cupcake recipe up here. There is little story to tell this time around. It was a Wednesday, I was trying to think on what to bake, and my workmate let slip that it was his Birthday. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’ve been getting the urge to do something minty of late, which is very not me. It’s not that I don’t like mint with sweet things (the odd after eight isn’t too bad), but I just don’t love it. I prefer my mint with my savoury foods, like lamb, or mint sauce with a pork pie. But as I said, I just got one of those urges to make something minty. So I started having a look around for some good looking mint frosting recipes. The best I came across was this one here on Sally’s Baking Addiction, which included the lovely addition of chocolate chips to give that added Mint Choc’ Chip ice cream nostalgia. Coupling mint with chocolate just has to be done, which lead me to tracking down the moistest cupcakes possible. The best recipe I found was here. The combination of the two was phenomenal, it had to be said.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Choc Chip Icing
- For the cakes:
- 130g all-purpose flour
- 200g granulated sugar
- 65g cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 120 ml milk
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 120 boiling water
- For the Frosting:
- 225g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 385-500g powdered (confectioners') sugar
- 2 Tablespoons double cream
- ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract (or more if you want)
- 2 drops green food colouring (I used a tad more than this)
- 100-200g mini chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 150°C and line your cake tray with cases.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, cocao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until it’s well mixed.
- Add the “wet” ingredients, apart from the boiling water, and mix on a medium speed until well combined.
- Reduce the speed and very carefully add the boiling water. Slowly up the speed until it’s on high and allow to mix for around 1 minute. This will get a good amount of air into the mix.
- Distribute the batter evenly into the cases. Fill to around ¾ of the case. Depending on the size of the case you’ll get between 12 and 18 cakes, but always fill to about ¾.
- Bake for 12-25 minutes. The cakes will be done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tray before transferring to a rack.
- While they are cooling, prepare the frosting.
- Take the softened butter and beat it until smooth and creamy, using a medium speed.
- Add 385g of icing sugar, saving the rest just in case. Also add the cream, peppermint and food colouring. Be sparing with both the peppermint and colouring. You can always add more, remember.
- Beat on a high speed for around 3 minutes. Scraping down the sides from time to time. Add more icing sugar if it is too thin, or more cream if it’s too thick. If you want to make it greener or mintier, add more of either but again do it in stages.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Apply to the cupcakes, ensuring that they are cool first. This frosting looks great pretty rough so don’t worry overly about presentation.
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