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Last week, my boss said he had cheated on me. Say what?
Apparently said boss ate a Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcake from a local bakery and thought it was amazing. I shrugged my shoulders because I didn’t really know that an exclusivity clause came with consuming my cupcakes. Then came the words, We were wondering if you can make a better batch? Seriously, did he just propose a challenge? Game on.
My game face lasted about 2 minutes because I realized that I had no more than 1/4 cup of cocoa powder in the house. I have no idea how this happened because I’m kind of a cocoa powder hoarder – it’s a bit of a problem.
However, after a quick fridge scan, I realized that I did have all the ingredients for my favorite boxed mix recipe. Game back on.
I figured if anything, I could play around with mint-chocolate buttercream to get the recipe just right and then test out a scratch recipe later.
Since I wanted the mint flavor to really shine through in both the cupcakes and the frosting, I took advantage of the bag of Andes Crème de Menthe baking chips that I have been taking up space in my pantry for months.
A quick swirl of two-tone, mint-chocolate frosting and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips created Mint-Chocolate Chip cupcake perfection.
All this mint chocolate cupcake perfection ended up completely for naught! A huge storm blew through that resulted in downed trees, power lines, no electricity, and work being closed for a day and a half. Sorry, Bossman! Better luck next time.
You’ll have to let me know what you think!
Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes
- 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
- 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 1/2 cups Andes Crème de Menthe baking chips
For the Frosting
- 4 sticks (2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1.5 pounds (28 ounces) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
- green gel dye
- 1/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- mini chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl with a hand mixer, add the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla and water. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes until all ingredients are well combined and the batter is smooth. Stir in the Andes Crème de Menthe baking chips.
- Using a large scoop distribute the batter between 24 muffin wells; about 3 tablespoons of batter per well.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-23 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched. Allow cupcakes to cool inside muffin tins for about 10 minutes.
- Remove cupcakes from muffin tins and allow to fully cool on a wire rack. Once cupcakes are cool, prepare your frosting.
For the Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes.
- Turn the mixture down to low speed and gradually add in the confectioners' sugar until it is completely incorporated. Add in vanilla and heavy cream. Turn the mixer back up to medium-high speed and beat the mixture for about 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Remove half of the frosting from the mixer bowl and set aside. Add a tiny amount of green gel dye to the remaining frosting (I used Wilton Leaf Green). Turn the mixer on and fully incorporate the dye. Slowly add more dye until you achieve a nice minty green color. Stir in peppermint extract.
- Remove the mint frosting from the mixing bowl and set aside. Add the other half of the frosting back into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add in the cooled, melted chocolate and cocoa powder. Mix until fully incorporated.
- For the two-toned effect, I used this method from GoodLife Eats. You can also carefully layer the two colors into the piping bag, but I find Katie's method to be much easier and cleaner.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and garnish with mini chocolate chips.
Notes:
- Mint Chocolate Cupcakes are best served the day they are made. However, they will keep in an airtight container within the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Remove to room temperature one hour before serving.
- If you want a mintier kick, gradually add more peppermint extract to the green frosting. Just use a light hand, peppermint extract can be pretty potent.
- Dark brown liners were purchased from TomKat Studio. A large star tip was used to pipe the frosting.
- DISCLOSURE: My Baking Addiction is an Amazon.com affiliate and will receive a small commission on the linked cookie scoop if purchased through the Amazon link within this post.
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I made these for a bake off at work and “I WON!” My son just turned 6 and he put in a request for me to make these for his party! Everyone loved them, thank you for the free recipe!
I’m glad the recipe worked for you. Thanks for stopping by.
-Jamie
I just want to say that these cupcakes taste wonderful but my only complaint is that this cake mix makes way more than 24 cupcakes. I really think that maybe you should adjust how many they really make because in trying to use all the cake batter for 24 cupcakes they turn out extra large and look really bad for frosting them. I was making these for a company and had to start all over due to the how large they were. they wouldnt even fit into the cupcake container that I bought. these make about 30 cupcakes. all in all taste of them are fantanstic.
Cupcake pans can vary in size and that is probably why the yield was different for you. I’m glad you liked the taste.
-Jamie
Hi there, do you have a vanilla version of this chocolate mint cupcake recipe?
Cheers
Glenda
You might like these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/vanilla-bean-cupcakes-recipe/ Thanks for stopping by.
-Jamie
Hi!!! I just discovered your blog and I loved it … I will try more than one of your recipes. Thanks for publishing
My son (and my hubby’s) favorite thing is mint chocolate chip (especially when green coloring is involved somewhere). I would like to make these for my son’s class as his 4th birthday treat on Monday, however I’d like to make mini cupcakes instead. Can you recommend baking time for minis? And approx how many tablespoons per mini cupcake well? I’d really appreciate it.
Hi Simi, I’m really sorry I didn’t get a chance to answer sooner. Mini cupcakes usually need to bake on the lower end of the time listed, so 18 minutes. I believe it’s roughly 1 tablespoon per well.
– Jamie
I just loooooooove to bake cupcakes! And my all time favorite icecream is Mint Chocolate Chip, so this is the best thing ever!
These cupcakes are amazing! And just in case anyone was wondering, they are 16 Weight Watchers Points Plus per cupcake.
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing.
Jamie
Made a couple of attempts at making these yesterday with so-so results. The few different devil’s food cake mixes I’ve found all say they have pudding mix added in, so why the extra added package of pudding mix as well? My first attempt was with the Betty Crocker mix and the batter came out perfectly but I put too much of it in each cup as I didn’t know they would grow so freakishly huge! They were mutants that I was unable to decorate so I figured I’d just start over. Bought a Pillsbury mix the second time and the batter came out extremely thick and fudge-like making it very difficult to spoon the batter in and with just an okay end result. Any tips? Has anyone else tried making these? What mix did you use?
Jenny. for this recipe the batter is going to be very thick. but this is the best boxed cake mix ever. I can’t find one to beat these.
I made these for my son’s birthday and they were amazing. What a great semi-homeade recipe. The flavor is out of this world. Thanks for making me look good.
I don’t get how you can have “baking addiction” and then use a boxed cake mix!! What a disappointment, I was hoping for something a little better from you. The swirling looks amazing though. x
Karen-
95% of the over 650 recipes on My Baking Addiction are from scratch. Being that this is a public blog, I try to appeal to a variety of readers at varying skill levels – many of which actually request doctored cake mix recipes. The beauty of the internet is that there is a wealth of information and recipes at your fingertips, so I am certain you will find a different recipe and blog that better meets your needs. Thanks so much for stopping by – have a great day.
-Jamie
I must say that I am a professional chef and I think these cupcakes are gorgeous. I have many colleagues that make wedding cakes on a regular basis and use mixes. They use them because the leavening agents are always exact and they know that each batch is always going to be the same. There is nothing wrong with doctoring up a cake mix.