Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with some mint chocolate chip cupcakes! This recipe is a classic and the minty green frosting makes its perfectly festive for an Irish holiday.

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

~*~ Makes 15 Cupcakes ~*~

Ingredients for Chocolate Cake:

• 1 stick Butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Flour
• 1 tbs Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1 tbs Vanilla

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is soft, then add sugar. Beat about 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until they are well combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them until they are well combined
5. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat it just to combine.
6. Add the liquids (milk & vanilla), scrape down bowl and beat to combine.
7. Continue adding the dry ingredients. Beat for another minute till smooth
8. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 20-22 minutes.

Mint Buttercream

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of room temperature butter (it’s very important they are room temp)
• 3 cups of powdered sugar (no need to sift)
• 1 tbs of cream of tartar
• 6 tbs of Half and Half
• 1/2 cup of thawed cool whip
• 1/4 tsp mint extract (use a little more depending on how “minty” you want it)
• 2 drops of green food coloring

Directions:

1. Beat the butter in your mixer until very creamy. You will need to scrape the bowl several times
2. Adding one cup of powdered sugar at a time, mix in with the butter.
3. Add the half and half and mint extract. Beat on medium speed for 5 minutes (be patient!)
4. Add the cream of tartar, food color and cool whip.
5. Mix on medium high for another 3-4 minutes.

I like to decorate my cupcakes with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. It’s also a nice touch to bake them in some festive cupcake liners.

There you have it, an easy and delicious way to celebrate the luck of the Irish!

Stay Sweet!

xoxo, Jill

Andes Mint Cupcakes

It’s official – the holiday season has arrived! Chick-fil-a is serving their seasonal peppermint mocha milkshake, Starbucks has their pumpkin coffees and minty latte’s, even McDonalds has a mint chocolate McFlurry. It became quite obvious that it was time for me to share my recipe for a delicious mint chocolate cupcake! If this doesn’t put you in a holiday mood, then I don’t know what will!

I love this recipe because it is easy and fool proof. Even the little one’s can help!

Here’s What you’ll need:

• 1 stick Butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Flour
• 1 tbs Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 cup of finely chopped Andes Mint Chocolates
• 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1 tbs Vanilla

~*~ Makes 15 Cupcakes ~*~

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is soft, then add sugar. Beat about 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until they are well combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them until they are well combined
5. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat it just to combine.
6. Mix in chopped up Andes Mints
7. Add the liquids (milk & vanilla), scrape down bowl and beat to combine.
8. Continue adding the dry ingredients. Beat for another minute till smooth
9. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 20-22 minutes.

Frost with Mint Buttercream and Top with Andes Mint Candy Pieces.

For an easy decoration technique, spread your frosting over the cupcake with a knife. Dip each cupcake in chopped up pieces of Andes Mint Chocolate. Voila! Super Easy but still looks great!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting instead of Mint

Smooth frosting with a knife over each cupcake.

Dip them in Ande's Mints and Enjoy!

If you prefer Chocolate to Mint, use my Chocolate Mousse Frosting recipe. It goes great with the Andes Mints!

Stay Sweet and have a great week! xoxo

Christmas Tree Treats!

Today in Florida the weather is refreshingly chilly, a bit windy, and so very seasonal!! I was admittedly not in any sort of holiday spirit a week ago, but am coming around. I finally feel like being festive!

Today’s recipe is for Christmas Tree Cupcakes. These cupcake are so easy, and are a great project to do with the kids or even a group of your girlfriends. The decorating options are endless and people won’t believe how delicious these little trees taste!

Christmas Treats!

For starters, you will need to decide on a base flavor for your cupcake. I chose chocolate because I knew I wanted to top it with my mint buttercream. But if you don’t like mint chocolate you can make regular buttercream frosting and tint it green.

Here is the buttercream recipe I use (and love!!)It is a wonderful base recipe that can be adapted to almost any flavor you desire!!

Easy Buttercream

• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 3 tbs of whipping cream
• 1 tbs of vanilla

**If you want this to be mint buttercream, simply add mint extract and tint with green food coloring.**

Directions

1. In a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk together powdered sugar and butter on medium high speed. Once combined, whisk for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy
2. Add the vanilla extract (if using mint, add the mint extract at this time) – mix well
3. Add the whipping cream and food coloring and whisk for another 3 minutes

To decorate fill a piping bag with your frosting and cut the tip off. Make sure you have a large enough hole for the frosting to come out of. Pipe the frosting onto your cupcake starting from the bottom and swirling your way to the peak of the tree. Practice a few times if  you aren’t comfortable with it.

Gather your Christmas sprinkles and start decorating! I used little candy pearls and placed them on first. I then used little snowflake sprinkles and placed them around each layer – topping the tree off with one as the star. You honestly cant go wrong here, any type of sprinkle you use will be absolutely adorable!

Voila – Christmas Tree Cupcakes! I took mine into the office and they were such a hit. People always love a festive treat!

Til next time, stay sweet xoxo

P.S. Don’t forget to order your cupcake goodies for the holidays. I have added a ton of new stuff to my shop. Visit me at www.etsy.com/shop/staycalmcupcake . Use code SCCS10for a  10% DISCOUNT!

The Perfect Mint Buttercream!

Mint-Chocolate Cupcake

I am happy to announce that I perfected my Mint Buttercream recipe. After looking through what seemed like 100’s of online recipes, I found a few I liked and combined them. The result you ask? A really yummy, “I’d put this on anything and eat it” kind of frosting.

Needless to say, I made a batch of Mint-Chocolate cupcakes, ate one, and got them out of the house!!

Mint Chocolate cupcakes are perfect for the Holidays. Enjoy this recipe and make sure you share with others 🙂 Stay sweet xoxo

 

Mint-Chocolate Buttercream

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Ingredients

• 3 sticks of room temperature butter (it’s very important they are room temp)
• 3 cups of powdered sugar (no need to sift)
• 1 tbs of cream of tartar
• 6 tbs of Half and Half
• 1/2 cup of thawed cool whip
• 1/4 tsp mint extract (use a little more depending on how “minty” you want it)
• 2 drops of green food coloring
• Andes mint candies

Directions:

1. Beat the butter in your mixer until very creamy. You will need to scrape the bowl several times
2. Adding one cup of powdered sugar at a time, mix in with the butter.
3. Add the half and half and mint extract. Beat on medium speed for 5 minutes (be patient!)
4. Add the cream of tartar, food color and cool whip.
5. Mix on medium high for another 5 minutes.

**Frosting will be very thick, but it’s supposed to be 🙂 **

These cupcakes are now available on my Etsy shop. Eight (8) cupcakes for $12, plus an extra treat because you read my blog! www.etsy.com/shop/staycalmcupcake  xoxo