Mint Choc Chip Cupcakes

 

So this is one of my own recipes. Mint Choc Chip is my favourite icecream flavour ever, so naturally I just had to make a cupcake version!

 

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

8oz unsalted butter

8oz caster sugar

4 eggs

8 oz self raising flour

Pinch baking powder

100g chocolate chips

3 tbsp chopped mint leaves

Few drops green food colouring 

For the mint crème layer:

2 cups icing sugar

2-4 tbsp melted butter

Few drops peppermint essence 

For the buttercream:

1 small bar chocolate

140g butter

280g icing sugar

Mint leaves to decorate

First, pre-heat the oven to 180c. To make the sponge, cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl, then mix in the eggs, one at a time. Next, sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold into the mix. Then add the chocolate chips, chopped mint leaves and food colouring, mixing lightly but thoroughly. Divide the mix between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until they are springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Next, make the peppermint crème layer. Mix together the icing sugar, 2tbsp of the melted butter and the peppermint extract, then add small amounts of the remaining melted butter until you are able to form the mix into a ball. You may not need to add any extra butter at all. Turn the ball out onto a lightly floured worktop and roll to approximately the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a round cookie cutter or glass that’s a little bit smaller than your cake to cut out 12 rounds of peppermint crème. Use any left over mix to make peppermint crèmes – shape into £2 coin sized pieces and cover with melted chocolate. 

Time to make the buttercream! Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and let it cool. Gently cream together to the butter and icing sugar until thoroughly combined. Once the chocolate has cooled, mix this into the buttercream too.

To assemble the cakes, fill a piping bag with the buttercream; squeeze a small amount of buttercream on top of each cake, placing a round of peppermint crème on top of this. This will hold the peppermint crème in place and stop it sliding off! Next, spiral icing ontop of each cake, trying to cover all of the peppermint cream and the edge between that and the sponge. Add the mint leaves to decorate. Simple!