Mint Choc Chip Christmas Cupcakes

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This batch of cupcakes turned out to be my final batch for 2011 as I made them for the New Years Eve party that I had. I did plan on making them for Christmas, but time ran away with me…story of my life!

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Mint and chocolate is a classic combination and when I saw these mini candy canes in the shops I snapped them up with the idea that they’d go on some cupcakes!

Mint Choc Cupcakes

Starting with the ingredients for the cupcakes:

  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 4tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 225g unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 1tsp mint essence
  • 100g chocolate chips

And for the icing:

  1. 115g unsalted butter, softened
  2. 225g icing sugar, sifted
  3. 1tsp mint essence
  4. green food colouring
  5. 100g chocolate chips

I actually tweaked the quantity of icing as I had ready made frosting that I wanted to use up, but will talk about that as I go on through the recipe.

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As always, preheat the oven – mine goes to 140C as it’s a fan oven, or if you have a conventional oven it is 160C/325F or Gas 3. Place the cupcake liners in the pans and away we go!

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First off, sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl and set to one side.

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Then beat the sugar and butter together in another bowl until smooth.

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The eggs go in next, one at a time, beating well after each one is added.

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Then add the flour mixture gradually, stirring until well combined. I used a wooden spoon rather than the electric beater for this.

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Next the mint essence goes in.

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And then the chocolate chips – stir them in until well combined.

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Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. I put a spoonful in each one and then go around again adding mixture until it is all used up. I do this to try and get even cupcakes.

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Into the oven they go for 20 minutes. I always stick a cocktail stick into a cupcake to check that it is done – it should come out clean with no batter on it. When cooked, cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Now time for the fun part – the decorating!

I decorated my cupcakes three different ways – the book tells me minty frosting with chocolate chips – which I did for some of them…

To make the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar in a bowl until smooth and creamy.

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Then add the mint essence

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And then the green food colouring. I use paste colourings and you don’t need much at all to give the icing a light hue of mint green.

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This is the end of a teaspoon showing how much I used to get the desired colour. It’s always best to use too little than too much as you can darken the colour, but never lighten it.

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I put a star shaped nozzle in a piping bag to do the first batch of decorations.

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Fill the bag up with the frosting and squeeze down to get rid of air bubbles – nothing worse than in the middle of piping and an air bubble messes up your work!

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Applying pressure to the bag, pipe a swirl on top of the cupcake and decrease the pressure to stop piping. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to pipe swirls on cupcakes!

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To decorate the swirls I used chocolate chips…

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…that I sprinkled on top…

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For the next batch of cupcakes I wanted to use up the frosting that I had in cans ready made.

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I fit the piping bag with a round nozzle this time and coloured the white frosting mint green but didn’t flavour it.

Sadly, the ready made icing didn’t live up to my expectations when piping out – and the nozzle was way smaller than I anticipated! These didn’t come out like the idea I had in my head for nice fluffy icing mounds, more like a dribble…!

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To decorate the top of this batch, I used mini candy canes…

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The final batch were covered with ready-made chocolate frosting that I spooned on top (after the previous piped mess, I didn’t want to risk it!)

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All done and ready for the party!

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I displayed them in a wire cupcake stand that I have, I think they looked great altogether!

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These cupcakes last without frosting for up to three days in an airtight container, or you can freeze them, un-iced for up to 3 months.

Most of the cakes got snaffled at the party, but they lasted well for a few more days after that in a cake tin.

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