Flours and Fudge: Thin Mint Cupcakes

It has been quite a while since I've baked, and even longer since I've baked cupcakes. When you go from baking cupcakes at least once a week to a few month hiatus, it almost feels like part of my life is missing. So, I chose today to bake. Today, when it's about 90 and humid as all heck. I came home from a funeral today to my house being 81 degrees (seriously.) and almost didn't bake. But, I've been meaning to bake for a week, so I turned on the AC and got to it. We're honeymooning in Costa Rica later this year, so if I can't handle this heat or humidity, I'm going to absolutely melt down there!

I adapted this recipe slightly. I followed it for the cake and frosting, but just changed up the assembly. The cakes turned out okay, but I've used this recipe before, and more often than not, it's disastrous. The batter is super super thin. And it tends to overflow a bit over the edges of the pan, even when I fill them a little less than recommended. My favorite chocolate cake mix is this one, that I found on Annie's Eats. It's slightly more ingredient/labor intensive, but SO worth it. I don't know why I don't just use that one every time. This frosting was easy, and didn't have me leaving unsalted butter out to soften, but it does get that sort of flaky hardened outside to it, which my usual buttercream does not. But, it's delicious. Perfectly chocolatey and minty and smooth. I wish I had left it just slightly thicker for better piping, it was a bit soft so it made my piping a little wobbly. So, how did I change the assembly? Instead of placing a Thin Mint cookie at the bottom of the cupcake before baking, I chose to crush them and top the cupcake with them before fully frosting them. I find that when you bake cookies in the cake batter, they dissolve into the batter and are "lost".

Thin Mint Cupcakes
adapted from Starting to Simmer

1.5 cups flour
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup whole milk
1 tbsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

For the frosting:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk, divided

12 thin mint cookies, crushed

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 18 cupcake slots in 2 pans.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Combine the milk and vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes.
4. Add the milk and vinegar mix, eggs, water, oil, and vanilla to the dry mix and beat for about 3 minutes. It will be thin!
5. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes or until the tops spring back and a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
6. Let cool completely.
7. To make the frosting, melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave at 30-second intervals until melted and blended.
8. Combine the powdered sugar, vanilla and 1/4 cup of milk together. On medium speed, with the whisk attachment, add in the chocolate and beat for 3 minutes. Frosting will be thick. Add the peppermint extract and SLOWLY add the remaining milk until you get the consistency you want.
*Peppermint extract is very strong, a little goes a long way. Even when you think it's not enough, you'll get a good peppermint aftertaste easily with this frosting.
9. To assemble: