Chocolate Mint Cupcakes...in all kinds of festive ways!

So I'm officially all cupcaked out for the week! My fridge can't currently keep up with the amount of baking we're doing at the moment so I have a back log of goodies...which is never a bad thing!

On Friday night and yesterday morning Mara and I baked over 150 mini cupcakes! 24 were for a holiday gift sale in a local gallery to lure in potential customers! and the rest were for our church Christmas party in the evening.

We made half with my amazing Martha Stewart Brownie Cupcake recipe topped with peppermint buttercream from the Primrose Bakery, and half were the gingerbread cupcakes topped with gingerbread cookies after the ones we made the other day were such a success...but I didn't bother taking pictures of those since you saw them in the last post!

The cupcakes for the holiday sale got a sprinkling of red sanding sugar and broken up candy canes:

After that we did some flat frosting, and covered those in green and red sanding sugar...

and then we couldn't resist adding a tasty little festive mint m&m to finish them off:

We piped these with a cute star nozzle:

and topped some with festive sprinkles...

and the rest with peppermint oreo crumb...yummy!

If you want to make your own delicious festive cupcakes here is the recipe we used:

For the cupcakes:

(Makes approx 30 mini cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups plain chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 cup caster sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit).  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally until just melted, about 4-5 mins.

2. Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth, whisk in eggs to combine.  Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).

3. Fill cupcake cases until 3/4 full.  Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted halfway in centres, comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 15-20 mins (for mini cupcakes, 25-30mins for regular size cupcakes)

For the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

60ml semi-skimmed milk

1/2 teaspoon good quality peppermint extract

4 cups icing sugar, sifted

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, peppermint extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. 2. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat again until the buttercream is smooth and creamy.

3. Taste the icing at this stage to see if you want to add any more peppermint

4. Pipe on and decorate!