Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

id="recipetitle"class="fn">Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my synchronized skating team's Christmas party last year and they were a huge hit. I also brought some to a hot "study date". And by hot study date I really mean writing a business plan with Ryan. In my case, business and social life are synonymous.

To be honest, I found the coffee flavor in this "mocha" cupcake to be a bit underwhelming. But I'm also terrible at brewing coffee.

I still had some of these left over, and was told that I could successfully freeze them. Wow was that person wrong. I got my brother to try a thawed one and he eloquently told me it was terrible. Now that I've slandered this recipe I'm sure you're really excited to try it.


INGREDIENTS


This picture hurts my soul

Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (room temperature)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg


Frosting

1 package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
5 cups confectioner's sugar


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with muffin cups. As you can see from the picture, I used some red and white striped candy cane inspired cups that looked really cute before baking and like crap after baking.

2) Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

3) In a measuring cup, combine the milk and brewed coffee.

4) In standup mixer beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk and coffee, beating until just combined.

5) Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for about 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Move the cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

6) For the frosting, mix the butter and cream cheese together until blended. Add the peppermint extract and the confectioner's sugar one cup at a time. If you want it less stiff, omit one cup of the confectioner's sugar. It was difficult to refrain from adding a tasteless comment on that.

I divided my frosting in half and added some red food coloring to one portion. Then in my pastry bag, I carefully put the red frosting in one half of the bag and the white in the other so that it would come out with a striped red and white effect. I recently saw this tip on Pinterest. Instead of painstakingly trying to put the two colors in manually, you simply put two pastry bags (one for each color) within one bag.

I must have been feeling extra festive because I even added some red sprinkles.