Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Because what's more Christmassy than chocolate and peppermint? Nothing, obviously. There is no other significance to the holiday. None.

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

14 tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) of butter

1 cup + 2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla paste

1 tbsp peppermint extract

4 eggs, separated

3/4 cup milk

1 bag miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Beat butter until fluffy, then add 1 cup sugar and the vanilla and peppermint. Mix well. Add the egg yolks one at a time.

Alternate in the flour mixture and the milk until just combined.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Remember that the bowl should be metal or plastic and no yolk may touch the whites or they will not beat properly. Slowly add in the 2/3 cup sugar in a stream and beat until stiff peaks form. The mixture will look like boiled frosting or meringue.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter until smooth and pale. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. The cupcakes don't rise that much, surprisingly, so you'll want to adjust the amount of batter depending on how big you want them to be. I had to make another half batch after this one because I needed a certain number of cupcakes for an event, and the second batch I filled the tins much fuller. You can see the results in the split-decorated cupcakes, which were puffy enough to be cut in half and filled.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn, bake 12 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 32 without the extra half batch.

Frosting:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

4-5 cups xxx sugar

3-4 tbsp heavy cream

1 tbsp peppermint extract

About 8 candy canes, crushed into a small pieces

Beat butter until soft and fluffy. Add xxx sugar and cream and beat until everything is well-combined and the cream has started to whip, making the icing extremely fluffy. Add in the peppermint.

Frost cupcakes generously, then roll the frosted part in the crushed candy canes. I did half my cupcakes this way, then ran out of candy canes, so if you want to use that approach get a few more candy canes. 

The other half I decorated with a junior mint candy and green & red sprinkles.

Recipe adapted from We Are Not Martha.