baking: minty kiss cupcakes

minty kiss! 

family members' birthdays are the perfect excuse to bake and try out new recipes! so here's my take on mint chocolate cupcakes, or how i hope my family starts referring to them as 'minty kisses' or 'kiss me i'm irish' cupcakes!

                     ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 cup of coffee (i use nescafe)
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons of softened butter
• 11/2 cup of sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 16 hersey kisses
• 2 tablespoon of finely chopped mint
• 2 girl scout thin mint cookies
• can of store bought vanilla frosting (or if making your own frosting you'll need butter, powdered sugar and milk)
• green food coloring. 

how to:

• preheat oven to 350. 
• in a bowl mix dry ingredients together (APF, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, coffee, salt).sift together and set aside. 
• in another bowl mix together butter and sugar with electric mixer until creamy. add egg whites one at a time. add in vanilla. 
• slowly incorporate dry mixture. mix in about 1/2 a cup at a time so you don't end up with flour all over yourself. 
• line muffin tin with paper cups and pour in mixture. 
• first bake for 10 minutes. in the meantime unwrap kisses and set outside. baker's tip!: place a pan of water in the with the cupcakes to ensure they come out moist.
• take out cupcakes and place a kiss in each cupcake. the kiss should gently kiss into the cupcake. continue baking for 7 minutes. always make sure to do the toothpick test when finished! 
• set aside and cool before frosting!

for frosting you can buy any vanilla store bought frosting or make your own.

if making your own frosting: for ever tablespoon of softened butter whisk one cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. add vanilla extract to taste (amount depends on size of batch). the amount you make depends on how much frosting you use. keep on whisking til you have the desired amount. for my taste 4 cups of sugar usually does it. while whisking butter and sugar, let the finely chopped mint sit in the milk. once you've whisked the butter and sugar together evenly add milk and mint. add 2 drops of green food coloring and continue mixing until color is evenly distributed.

how the kiss looks inside! 

using store bought frosting: while cupcakes are baking let finely chopped mint sit in 1/8 of milk. while cupcakes are cooling mix minty milk and frosting together.

• after cupcakes have cooled frost cupcakes! finally chop thin mint cookies and sprinkle crumbs over cupcakes as decorations.

and voila! you have 'minty kiss' cupcakes or as i'll make my family refer to as 'kiss me i'm irish' cupcakes although the name isn't very politically correct. 

baking: honey-coconut cupcakes

honey-coconut cupcakes

Ingredients...

• 1/2 cup softened butter (take butter out from fridge a couple hours before baking)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1/3 cup of shredded coconut 
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2/3  cup of milk

How to...

1. first preheat oven to 350 (for any first time bakers, 350 is like the universal temp for most cakes).
2. beat together butter and sugar until creamy. add eggs one at a time. add vanilla, honey, and coconut.
3. now for the dry ingredients. it’s best to stir them all together in a separate bowl. add a bit at a time to the liquid mixture. half a cup at a time is what i do. then add milk.
4. place cupcake cups into cupcake/muffin tin. with an ice cream scooper or spoon, add mixture to cups. depending on how much you fill the cupcake the recipe should yield 10-12 cupcakes.
5. place in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. a baker’s tip of mine that i learned years back was to place a pan of water in with the cupcakes to make sure they come out moist. also make sure to do the toothpick test (stick a tooth pick into a cupcake, if it comes out clean its done but if it comes out wet it needs more time.). oven temps tend to differ depending on oven so test!
6. let cool before placing on a cooling rank. cool awhile longer before frosting, i usually cool overnight because cold cupcakes are easiest to frost.
7. you can use store bought frosting or make your own. i’ve found that it’s easier just to buy it. i used store bought chocolate frosting and just used a disposable piping bag to frost. finally i topped with a raspberry and sprinkled red sprinkles on top.  
8. lastly, eat and enjoy!

***if anyone is counting points, one cupcake is 6 ppv (for a batch of 12) or 7 ppv (for a batch of 10). this is without frosting. frosting is usually about 3 points. i'm convinced that the flexible fun 49 points were invented for sweets and booze. so have one!***