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

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!

Mint Chocolate Madness

Heavenly!!

Ok, so I have to admit….I have been craving the mint-chocolate combo for about the last 30 days! There is something so wintery and “festive” about cool mint and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. I am a HUGE fan of those little Andes mints and love a York Peppermint Patty. Because I love this combo so much, I have been searching for the perefect chocolate mint cupcake recipe. Unfortunately, I haven’t really found one I like. Tonight though, I am going to try a combination of recipes, add in a few of my own ideas, and then (hopefully) indulge in some yummy chcolate mint goodness.

Until then, enjoy some inspiration for your own chcolate mint cupcakes. I will post the final recipe tomorrow along with some pictures of my treats.

Happy Monday readers. Enjoy!

P.S. I am sponsoring a new blog, and she’s offering a great give-away! Go check it out, she has some fabulous posts!  http://itssimplelove.blogspot.com/