Once Upon a Plate is pleased to announce it's first guest author; my cousin Meg! She is a 15 year old spitfire who is not only a talented student, athlete, and kind-hearted lady, but man can she make an incredible cupcake! Her story and recipe are below...and dont wait too long to make these, they will soon become your staple dessert- Enjoy!
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I love
cupcakes. They are definitely the most adorable and delicious kind of cake! So,
when Aunt Jane invited us over for dinner in Maine, I decided to make some to
bring. After thinking about lots of different flavors, I chose mint and dark
chocolate because they would look pretty and taste really good together! So off
to Hannaford’s we went to get cupcake materials for some minty Maine madness.
The night before, I made the cake part of the cupcakes and left them covered
overnight. They were really moist and yummy and it was interesting to use dark
chocolate instead of regular chocolate. The next day was frosting day, the best
part. The peppermint extract smelled bad by itself but when it got mixed in
with everything else it tasted really good…so we ate tons of it while frosting
the cupcakes!
Lizzy appeared on her kayak just in time to help out with piping
the frosting and making chocolate curls with a dark chocolate bar. In the end,
they were a success! The frosting and the cake went really well together, and
of course there is no better time to eat a cupcake than after a delicious
lobster dinner on a beautiful summer night in Maine!
Mint-Chocolate Cupcakes
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups
sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup
Hershey’s dark chocolate cocoa
1 ½
teaspoons baking powder
1 ½
teaspoons baking soda
1
teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup
milk
½ cup
vegetable oil
2
teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup
boiling water
Line
muffin cups with paper baking cups. Heat oven to 350ยบ.
Stir
together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large
bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
Bake
22-25 minutes.
Makes 30.
Mint Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks
butter
4-5 cups
powdered sugar, sifted
¼ cup
milk
1/8
teaspoon all natural peppermint extract
Beat
butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
Add 4
cups of powdered sugar, the milk, and the peppermint extract. Beat until
combined.
