Last Monday, I baked some ‘Thank-you’ cupcakes which I found here on Pinterest of course! It didn’t go completely to plan, but, as they say, it was alright on the night!

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)
1 cup boiling water

~ Directions ~
*Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
*In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
*Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
*Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
*Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
*Bake cupcakes for approximately 22-24 minutes.
*Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick, 8 Tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (about 3/4 of a regular block of cream cheese)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 to 3 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)

~ Directions ~
*Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.
*Add powdered sugar (a little at a time) and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
*Add vanilla and peppermint extracts
*Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
*Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
*Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)

To achieve the red stripe in the frosting:  Before filling a large piping bag with frosting, add some red gel food coloring to a toothpick, and draw two (vertical) lines with the red dye on the inside of the piping bag. Then carefully fill the piping bag with frosting.  Squeeze some frosting into a bowl until you begin to see the red stripe, then frost the cupcakes.

Top cupcakes with some crushed candy canes (they will “melt” after a bit, so they need to be served right away) or a small piece of peppermint bark.

I’d said to Amber that I’d try and make some yummy peppermint ‘holiday’ cupcakes, the cupcakes themselves weren’t that bad at all, the frosting was way too runny, If I’d had a do-over, I’d have abandoned adding the cream in and leaving it be.

The chocolate cupcakes were pretty good, not the best I’ve made or tried, but they were good.  They rose ever so slightly more than I’d have liked, but they were almost perfectly flat and pretty moist.

For the next recipe, I tried another one from 500 cupcakes, I’ve had really mixed results with this book.  And this peanut butter cupcake recipe, was unfortunately no different.

I won’t bother giving you the recipe for the cupcakes, as they weren’t good at all.  They didn’t rise much, they looked more like rock cakes and they were very greasy (as can be seen in the picture, the cases are saturated), I just chucked them out – yes, they were THAT bad!

I *WILL* however, share with you the recipe of the peanut butter frosting that it came with.  It was absolutely delicious and ended up on top of my chocolate cupcakes (due to the fact that the peppermint frosting was way beyond use-able) and made a really good topping for the chocolate cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth)

1/2 cup (1 stick) of sweet butter, softened (I used half a stick of salted butter and half a stick of margarine)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tbsp milk

I loved it and could have eaten spoonfuls of it!!

I also tried this, which I’ve discovered is the best kept baking secret – ever!

Isn’t it awesome?