This week my husband asked if I could make some Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes for him to bring into work. My husband’s co-workers are often the recipients of my baking trials and triumphs, and always seem more than happy to eat my “experiments”. My husband doesn’t often put in special requests, so I was glad to cater to him and sent him to work today with a dozen Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes. My husband’s work shift starts at 6am and he called me later in the morning to let me know the cupcake were gone by about 6:10am! I guess that means they liked them =)
The recipe is just a tiny variation of the Chocolate Cupcake and Cream Cheese Frosting recipes I’ve posted before, but I’ll add them here to save you a couple clicks.
Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)
1 cup boiling water
~ Directions ~
*Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
*In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
*Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
*Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
*Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
*Bake cupcakes for approximately 22-24 minutes.
*Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick, 8 Tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (about 3/4 of a regular block of cream cheese)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 to 3 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)
~ Directions ~
*Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.
*Add powdered sugar (a little at a time) and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
*Add vanilla and peppermint extracts
*Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
*Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
*Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)
To achieve the red stripe in the frosting: Before filling a large piping bag with frosting, add some red gel food coloring to a toothpick, and draw two (vertical) lines with the red dye on the inside of the piping bag. Then carefully fill the piping bag with frosting. Squeeze some frosting into a bowl until you begin to see the red stripe, then frost the cupcakes.
Top cupcakes with some crushed candy canes (they will “melt” after a bit, so they need to be served right away) or a small piece of peppermint bark (I used a little peppermint Andes candy).
Bring some of these into work, or send them in with your spouse, and see how popular you quickly become!
Happy Baking!
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
Ingredients
Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa best quality available
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract best quality available
- 1 cup boiling water
Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter 1 stick/8 Tablespoons, at room temperature
- 6 oz cream cheese at room temperature (about 3/4 of a regular block of cream cheese)
- 4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)
Instructions
Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
- Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
- Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
- Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
- Bake cupcakes for approximately 22-24 minutes.
- Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add powdered sugar (a little at a time) and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
- Add vanilla and peppermint extracts
- Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
- Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)
To achieve the red stripe in the frosting
- Before filling a large piping bag with frosting, add some red gel food coloring to a toothpick, and draw two (vertical) lines with the red dye on the inside of the piping bag. Then carefully fill the piping bag with frosting.
- Squeeze some frosting into a bowl until you begin to see the red stripe, then frost the cupcakes.
- Top cupcakes with some crushed candy canes (they will “melt” after a bit, so they need to be served right away) or a small piece of peppermint bark (I used a little peppermint Andes candy).
I was reading the other comments and saw the one about using coffee. Is the amount still 1 cup if using coffee, strong coffee or espresso?
I have been looking forever for a good chocolate cake recipe, and I tried this one – it was perfect! I always fill my liners 1/2 full, so I didn’t have any issues with sinkage and I look forward to actually being able to make chocolate cupcakes in the future! Thanks!!
these cupcakes look great, so cute, and I’m sure that they are tasty too. No wonder that they were hit at work. I’ve featured this recipes on my blog! I hope you don’t mind! If you don’t agree with that please contact me and I will remove it. All the best.
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Hi I have a bake sale I would love to make this for on wednesday the proceeds go to the childrens aid society. I was just curious if i bake them tuesday, and decorate them on tuesday night would that be fine for wednesday? should i keep them in the fridge ?
thanks for your help
Glory, these are gorgeous! My hubby’s fave drink is the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha, so I was thinking of trying this, but maybe using coffee instead of the boiling water. In your opinion, will that alter the consistency of the cakes? If so, how would you recommend infusing a mild coffee flavor into the chocolate cakes?
If you add regular coffee in place of the water, you will not taste the coffee at all. This is actually a good trick to boost the chocolate flavor, especially if you don’t have good quality cocoa powder on hand. If you actually want to taste the coffe flavor, I would recommend adding some pretty stong espresso (this could be made with instant espresso powder).
Ooh, just though of another option. You could bake the cupcakes as listed, then after they come out of the oven, poke a few holes in the tops (of the still warm cupcakes) with a toothpick. Then brush some strong coffee over the cupcakes, with a pastry brush. It will soak in and add just a bit of the flavor.
I made these yesterday for Sunday School treats today! I made them into mini cupcakes though (using my mini muffin pans and mini Christmas muffin papers) and used the Andes bagged peppermint candy crunch(in baking aisle by chocolate chips at holidays) for the topping. They were a BIG hit! I loved the idea to make the frosting swirled — hadn’t tried that before and it worked great. I refrigerated them overnight to keep the candies from “melting” into the frosting. I will definately be making them again for another holiday party or puhaps sending some to work with my husband too! Thanks so much!
Just made the cupcakes (made a different mint frosting) and they were amazing! My first pan though was REALLY big and poofy. Filling the wrappers halfway instead of 2/3 worked better on the second batch.
I also made a half batch where I subbed in 1 teaspoon of mint extract for one of the vanilla teaspoons. It added a really subtle mint taste. I’d try adding more next time because I like my mint to be strong.
Definitely keeping this recipe.
These look great. Thanks for the tip on how to make the stripe!
I made these for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! I added chopped peppermint Hershey kisses and it was wonderful 🙂
My sister and I made these. Filled the cups half way and put them in the oven. Within 5 minutes they overflowed and spilled every where in the oven. We bake all the time so we aren’t sure what happened. She has a convection oven so we were wondering if that may have been the problem? Should we adjust the baking powder and baking soda amount?
Yes, the convection oven is likely the problem. It cooks very differently than conventional ovens. If possible, can you turn off the convection feature? The additional air flow often over-powers the delicate structure of cupcakes, and blows them all around while they are trying to rise.