Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

A co-worker of mine is considered to be our "guru" at the office. He knows everything about everything. For real. Anytime there's questions about anything, he's the guy to go to. As a thank you, I made him mint chocolate chip cupcakes. It's a thank you that I benefit from as well. When I looked online, I found a recipe that so many other blogs seemed to reference and copy. So, rather than experimenting, I wanted to make sure these cupcakes turned out correctly the first time, I used the same recipe.  Thank you Chasing Delicious for the great recipe!

Cupcakes:
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp.
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temp.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
4 ounces milk chocolate chips (plus extra for decoration)

Preheat an oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper cups.


Sift together the cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated well. Add both extracts and mix in well.

Add half of the dry mixture into the egg mixture and mix until combined. Add the chopped chocolate to the other half of the dry mixture and set aside. Mix in the buttermilk and mix until combined.

Add the remaining dry mixture with the chopped chocolate into the batter and mix until just combined. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin pan. Each cup should be filled 3/4 of the way.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out just barely clean. Set on a cooling rack.

Frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Green food coloring

In an electric mixer, mix the butter, heavy cream, and extract together. Add the powdered sugar in batches. Then add the food coloring several drops at a time until you get the desired color.

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.