Thin Mint Cupcakes

It comes around once a year and creates a shopping frenzy...and no, I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about Girl Scout cookie time!! Ever since I was little, I can remember my mom buying those green boxes of Thin Mint cookies and storing them in the freezer to last until they were sold again the next year. Of course, the cookies were always completely devoured well in advance of the next Girl Scout cookie sale, but we savored every one!!

This year, though, when I saw the Girl Scouts out selling, I wanted to try something different. Since I (obviously) love baking, I thought I'd try to incorporate them into some sort of recipe. After a bit of searching, I stumbled upon this recipe at Food Librarian and decided to give it a whirl. The result was a delicious chocolate cupcake with a subtle but not overwhelming mint flavor...and then I decided to whip up some mint buttercream frosting to give it a bit more punch!

Girl Scout Thin Mint Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart)
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 sleeve crushed Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Combine crushed Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the eggs, warm water, milk, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth (about 3 minutes). Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes. Yield: 24 cupcakes


Mint Buttercream Frosting
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup butter or shortening
5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. green liquid food coloring

Mix butter in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in peppermint extract, food coloring, and half of the powdered sugar. Mix until well-blended, then add milk and remaining powdered sugar. Mix until well-blended. Add more powdered sugar or milk to achieve desired consistency.





There you have it! I chose to decorate my cupcakes with a simple dark chocolate ganache made with Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and heavy cream...feel free to get in touch with your creative side and decorate as you want!

Happy baking!


Riley

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

There are few dessert items more classic than a chocolate cupcake!  So, when I really wanted to bake cupcakes the other day, that was what I decided on. However, I also happened to be out of butter, which tends to eliminate a lot of my usual recipes.  But, I stumbled upon Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe (which is the recipe on the back of all of their cocoa boxes, in case you were wondering) which requires no butter at all!  Now, the buttercream, of course, did require butter...but I had to do something while all those cupcakes were cooling so I made a field trip to Meijer.

This cupcake recipe is quite unique compared to a lot of other chocolate cake recipes I've tried.  It's not dense, but it's also not light and airy.  It's not super moist, but it's also not dry.  It's not overwhelmingly chocolatey and it's a bit on the sweeter side.  If I had made this recipe before, I probably wouldn't have made buttercream for the topping (the end result was a little too sweet for my taste...but I'm also a fan of bittersweet chocolate so take that suggestion with a grain of salt).  But, my grandma requested caramel buttercream so I adapted a recipe based on what I had on hand
and here's the results!

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water (I just microwaved a bowl of water for 2 minutes)

Preheat over to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add in eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and water.  Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Fill prepared paper cups 1/2 full with batter. Bake for 21-23 minutes.  Yield: 30 cupcakes

Caramel Buttercream Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, not packed
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter or shortening
• 5 cups powdered sugar

Melt 1/2 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar in a pan on the stove.  Bring to a boil and cook (while stirring constantly) for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and whisk in milk and vanilla extract.  Mix the other 1/2 cup of butter (or shortening) with 2 cups of powdered sugar until well-mixed.  Alternate adding the brown sugar mixture and remaining powdered sugar. 

There you have it...sorry for my absence here for the last month.  Finances haven't been great and thus I haven't gotten the chance to try out many inventive recipes.  I am, after all, a poor grad student!  Hopefully once all the conference I'm going to are over, I'll have more time for posting!

Happy baking!

Riley =)