Your friends will be green with envy if they don’t get one of these amazing Mint Chocolate Cupcakes! Thankfully, this recipe makes 24 homemade chocolate cupcakes and plenty of mint buttercream frosting to top them… it’s certainly enough to feed a crowd!
A perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, these cupcakes are kid-friendly (as long as they like the combination of chocolate and mint) but sophisticated enough in flavor to truly appeal to adults as well.
I find that using peppermint extract makes for a fresher and more “real” mint flavor that I love. I like to keep the cupcakes plain chocolate and add the peppermint extract to the buttercream frosting to give the frosting an excuse to be a beautiful festive green! That said, you could instead add the 3/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract into the chocolate cupcake batter and top with plain buttercream frosting, if you’d like. Or, if you omit the peppermint extract and green food coloring entirely, you’ll simply be left with some pretty amazing homemade chocolate cupcakes topped with perfect buttercream frosting!
And did I mention the batter is made in just one bowl for easy cleanup? I always love that!
SmartCanister Lineup
This recipe is made easiest if you are using PantryChic SmartCanisters to store all-purpose flour, sugar, powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
If you are not already storing all of these ingredients in their own SmartCanister, you can always use the PantryChic's scale function to manually add an ingredient.
Prepare the Cupcake Batter
Use the PantryChic to dispense the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. You can also use an ordinary mixing bowl (as seen in the pictures) if you have an electric hand mixer to beat the batter.
Stir or whisk the ingredients together to fully disperse the cocoa powder throughout and break up any small clumps of cocoa. You can do this even easier by using the electric mixer to mix on low for 1 minute.
Add the Wet Ingredients
To the dry ingredients, add eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. There’s no need to pre-mix the wet ingredients, you simply add them right into the same bowl with the dry and beat for 2 minutes.
As the electric mixer is running, you slowly add boiling water to finish off the batter. The batter may seem thinner than many cake batters, but it will cook up perfectly.
Fill the Cupcake Liners
Place 24 paper liners in cupcake tins and fill each with the batter, just until halfway full, as seen in the picture. Ordinarily, I’ll use an ice cream scoop to dispense batter, but this batter is so thin that you could also just pour it using any cup with a pour spout.
Bake the cupcakes in a 350°F oven for 16–18 minutes, just until the centers have domed up and a toothpick comes out clean.
Transfer the cupcake tins to wire racks to cool completely before frosting and decorating. As they cool, I like to…
Prepare the Frosting
Use the PantryChic to dispense powdered sugar into a mixing bowl or, even better, the bowl of an electric mixer.
I simply add all of the remaining ingredients (butter, milk, peppermint extract, vanilla extract, milk, and green food coloring) all at once and then beat for 2 minutes, or until fluffy. You can add additional milk a few teaspoons at a time if you find the frosting too thick, but I find I don’t have that issue when perfectly measuring the powdered sugar with the PantryChic.
Once the frosting is made you can get to the fun stuff and start decorating! Whether you go rustic and spread the frosting over the cupcakes with a rubber spatula, or go for something Instagram-worthy with a pastry bag or frosting gun, have fun with it.
There are plenty of great options for garnishes and I had a hard time choosing which ones I’d use in this photo! You can top with green sprinkles, chocolate chips (or the amazing chocolate curls I found in the baking aisle), whole Andes mints or Andes mint chips that you can sometimes find for sale near the chocolate chips, grasshopper or thin mint cookies (either whole or crumbled up), or fresh mint.
Recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes
Active Prep Time: 30 mins ∙ Cook Time: 18 mins ∙ Makes: 24
SmartCanister Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (187.5g) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
3/4 cup (64.5g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons (5.3g) baking powder
3/4 teaspoon (3.4g) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4.5g) salt
Other Ingredients
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup (180g) sour cream
1/4 cup (54.5g) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
3/4 cup (177g) boiling water
Recipe: Mint Buttercream Frosting
SmartCanister Ingredients
6 cups (720g) powdered sugar
Other Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon (3.7g) peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) vanilla extract
3 tablespoons (44.3g) milk
12 drops green food coloring, optional
DIRECTIONS
- Place oven racks in the center positions and preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tins with 24 paper liners.
- Place the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl on the PantryChic scale. Dispense 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Stir or whisk until the cocoa powder is evenly dispersed.
- Meanwhile place at least 1 cup of water (in case of evaporation) on the stove to bring to a boil. You will need 3/4 cup of boiling water to add to the batter.
- Add the eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients.
- Use an electric mixer with a paddle attachment or electric hand mixer to beat on medium for 2 minutes. Slowly add the 3/4 cup of boiling water and beat, just until combined into a thin batter.
- Fill the paper liners in the cupcake tins only 1/2 of the way full.
- Bake 16–18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare the frosting by placing the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl on the PantryChic scale. Dispense 6 cups of powdered sugar.
- Add the remaining frosting ingredients and use an electric mixer or electric hand mixer to beat 2 minutes, until fluffy and combined. Use a spatula or pastry bag to frost the cooled cupcakes before serving.