Nothing Is What It Seems – Slimy Cupcakes

44. Nothing Is What It Seems – Slimy Cupcakes
23rd November 2011

Today at school, we made some cupcakes. They were small, cute and utterly delicious to those who adore peppermint (Je le deteste, c’est vrai!) but even with the fresh minty aftertaste, I didn’t mind licking the batter bowl!

But there are a couple of reasons of why nothing was what it seemed with these cupcakes – off leading, slightly upsetting and downright weird! For one thing, the icing – the Shrek green icing was a vanilla buttercream! When I see green, I see mint, but the icing bowl was my haven! Secondly and obviously then, the mini rich chocolate cupcakes were filled with pepper mint essence, which was totally not expected either!

Another thing which may have put a person off was the icing – see, my partner and I are a little impatient – anyone who is a true baker knows the difficulty of waiting during cooling time, fingers itching to slice up the cake and gobble! So, we thought that waiting 10 minutes was quite respectful so we started to ice. And the icing starting to melt.  This led to the most delicious slime ever…

To be honest with you, I actually rather liked how it looked – I am strictly a piping and waiting girl (no matter how hard it hits) so when I saw melting icing for the first time, it was a real treat! It looked pretty cool to me and I can’t decide whether it was because I had never seen it before or because it actually looks pretty awesome – why don’t you tell me :)?

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes: 12 muffins or 24 mini cupcakes

Ingredients

• 60g dark chocolate
• 150ml water

***If you think chocolate water is a weird melting combination, which before it is completely melted it is, you can substitute 30g butter + 80g chocolate which will also make the cupcake a little richer

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (we used an extra 1 tbs) brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp peppermint essence (apparently it was not very strong so increase to 1/2 tsp if you are a hardcore lover)
• 90g butter, softened
• 1 cup plain flour (the original recipe used 1 cup SRF but by not using any raising agents, we got beautiful shape and filled the liners up to the top)
• 2 tbs cocoa powder

Frosting – double if making 24 cupcakes

• 75g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup icing sugar/mixture
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence (I think peppermint would be more appropriate)
• 1 tsp hot water (we didn’t need it since our frosting was smooth enough)
• 2-3 drops green food colouring

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place chocolate and water (or butter) in a saucepan over low heat and stir continuously until melted and smooth
3. Place eggs, peppermint essence, sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat until light and fluffy – if you do it this way with everything together, the mixture may appear very curdled and wet. I suggest beating together the butter and sugar first, adding the eggs one at a time and then the essence, beating well after each addition for a smoother batter
4. Sift in flour and cocoa. Stir until just combined. Add in warm chocolate mixture and stir until just combined – The batter will be relatively thin
5. Divide mixture between 12 muffin liners/24 cupcake liners – fill to the top if used plain flour and 1/2 way to 3/4 if used SRF
6. Bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes and cupcakes for 13-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely (unlike us!)
7. Topping: Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in essence, food colouring and water is necessary. Beat until smooth and creamy. Swirl or pipe over cakes. Finish with grated dark chocolate.  EAT!

P.S Personally, I think you could make this a really cool peppermint candy cane Xmas style cupcake with the festival so close! – Use white shortening in the topping (same amount), and divide the frosting in two, adding red food dye to one half. Pipe one frosting and then the other inbetween for candycane frosting – ALSO, garnish with a small candy cane and put chopped up canes inside actual cupcake – CUTE!