Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

I thought these would be perfect for St Patty's Day, but leaving for work at 6:30am and getting home at 8:30pm made this next to impossible. Also the reason I can't have a dog. Last weekend I mentioned to a friend that I thought these would be delicious, and she decided that we just had to make them. So here they are!

For the cupcakes I used my favorite recipe, thanks the The Pioneer Woman. I amended it slightly, but you can click here for her full recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup butter
4 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir and set aside.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and stir to combine. Add the boiling water, allow to bubble for a few seconds, then turn off heat.

Pour chocolate mixture over flour mixture. Stir a few times to cool the chocolate. Pour buttermilk mixture over the top and stir to combine.

Fill each cupcake paper 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for a little in the pan, then place them on a baking rack to finish cooling.


After some pre-garden work and some quality friend time, the cupcakes were cool and in need of some frosting.

Mint Buttercream Frosting
1 c butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2 c milk
1 1/2 tsp mint extract

Using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add 4 cups of the powdered sugar and mix well. Add 1/2 c milk and mint extract and stir. Combine in the remaining two cups of powdered sugar. You can use more or less, depending on the consistency you need.

I frosted the cupcakes using a large round tip and icing bag. I added brown sprinkles to half for a little extra pizazz. Here's the finished product!

I was a little afraid that people weren't quite into the mint-chocolate thing as much as me, so I made half of them with vanilla frosting rather than mint.

And of course some sprinkles

on half of those to spice it up!

Success!

And I only ate one... Double success!