I am so excited, I have finally come up with my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe! I’ve tried so many chocolate cupcake recipes before and have never really found one I fully love. They are too dense, too dry, too oily, or they have too much cocoa. So, I decided to create my own recipe. I love this chocolate cupcake. I also love that these cupcakes are so fluffy and pretty, you take them out of the oven and they don’t sink down and flatten. They hold their pretty, rounded top shape.
Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes
Another great thing about these is the simplicity of this chocolate cupcake. You don’t have to melt chocolate or boil water. You simply combine all the dry ingredients then add in the rest. Bonus, it’s made from basic ingredients you probably always have on hand which is nice. Of course, if you are using this recipe for a basic chocolate cupcake batter (non-peppermint version) simply omit the peppermint extract and increase the vanilla to 1 tsp then top with your favorite frosting, with all other instructions the same. I love the combination of flavors in this peppermint chocolate cupcake version. You get a peppermint chocolate cake, topped with milk chocolate ganache, piped with peppermint cream cheese frosting and it’s finished off with a sprinkling of crushed candy canes. I wanted to eat every last one of these mini Christmas cakes. I always use liners in my muffin tin, and at this time of year, I love to use the fun and festive cupcake liners in my cupcake pan.
Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
If you are totally against cream cheese frosting you could also use a buttercream frosting in its place and it would be delicious as well. When I was creating this recipe I was trying to decide between the two, cream cheese frosting or buttercream frosting. I decided to go with the cream cheese because I wanted this to be a decadent, show-stopping cupcake. You could make these white chocolate peppermint cupcakes with melted almond bark or white chocolate chips instead of ganache or white chocolate buttercream. Cream cheese adds more decadence than the basic buttercream frosting would, also it adds another flavor that blends so perfectly with the chocolate and peppermint. I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I do =). Have a very Merry Christmas!
