Week 2: Andes Mint Cupcakes

First off, sorry for the delay in posting of my cupcake challenge, I have been making the cupcakes, just not keeping up to date on my blogging!

So I got mixed reactions on my announcement of my 52 week cupcake challenge.  Most people love the idea, as they get to eat and try all these yummy treats.   But I have gotten a few negative comments.  First off I just want to make it clear; you don’t have to eat the cupcake that is your choice.  But really one cupcake a week isn’t really going to hurt you!  Life is too short to not enjoy the little things :)!  I really wanted to give myself challenge, so I am determined to do it! 

This week I decided to do something minty!  I love minty things, and when I saw the picture I was like omg!  This week’s cupcake is an Andes mint cupcake!  Let just say these went fast!

Now when looking at this recipe I was a little skeptical as it used boxed cake mix, which I have no problem using but wanted to be trying things by scratch.  The other weird ingredient for me was sour cream.  I am not skeptical anymore, after making the cake, I think this is the best cake I have ever made and tasted.  It was so moist and just so good!  

This is what my finished product looked like:

This week I got the recipe from : http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2011/05/andes-mint-cupcakes.html and the pictures in the recipe are from me!

Andes Mint Cupcakes

Yield: 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients

Chocolate Cakes:

1 cup sour cream

½ cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

¼ cup water

½ cup buttermilk

Devil’s Food Cake Mix

Chocolate Mint Filling:

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

¼ cup powdered sugar 

Mint Butter cream:

8 oz cream cheese

6 tablespoons butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream or milk

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

green food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. Using a whisk, mix sour cream, oil and vanilla extract together. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well in between each addition.

3. Alternate adding the cake mix and liquids (buttermilk and water), starting and ending with the cake mix.

4. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until and inserted knife come out clean.

5. Chocolate Mint Filling: Melt chocolate chips and heavy cream together in the microwave or on the stove top over medium heat. Stir in peppermint extract and powdered sugar.

6. When cupcake come out of the oven, use a squeeze bottle to fill the cupcake with the filling, or use the filling as a ganache and dip the tops of the cakes into it. 

*This is what it looked like after I filled it!

7. Mint Butter cream: Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream and peppermint extract and beat well. Add green food coloring and stir well

8. Pipe butter cream onto cooled cupcakes 

9. Top with extra Chocolate Mint Filling and an Andes Mint.

*I then added a little more ganache on top!

My notes:

-I couldn’t find a squeeze bottle at the store, so I used these icing decorators I got from Avon.  They worked perfect in getting the ganache in the center.

-The cake may not looked cooked, but as long as it when you use a knife or tooth pick and it comes out clean than it is baked. 

-When do the icing, as I learned, you start from the inside to the outside!  It took me a few trial runs to  figure it out!

Now if anyone is wondering, like I was what the ganche inside looks like here you go:

These are so far out of the two I have made, my favorite!

Love always aloterlla :)