Peppermint Cupcakes...

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend ever since I started my blog. This Sunday is of course St Patricks Day, an excuse to make anything I bake green. I’d been thinking about this for ages, I was going to experiment with putting Guinness into the cupcakes or buttercream. However, circumstances meant this blog was quite rushed and last minute. Let’s just say I’ll be having a sober weekend…

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With that in mind, I was thinking to myself what can I do? Then it hit me, Aero Peppermint. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew I wanted to incorporate it. I went to my local supermarket, with the hope they would have the bars of Aero bubble chocolate as well as the balls. Luckily, they did, turns out I needed a lot of ingredients as I’d ran out. Considering my baking cupboard is pretty full, it’s like a jigsaw getting specific things in and out.

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For the cupcakes, I melted one and a quarter bars of Aero peppermint chocolate (roughly 125g) in a bowl. I had no idea how it was going to taste in the cupcakes or even if you’d be able to tell but it smelled really good. In another bowl I added 175g of butter, caster sugar, self raising flour and 3 eggs into a bowl along with 1 teaspoon of baking powder. I was worried that I didn’t have any peppermint flavouring but I was just experimenting. I added the melted peppermint chocolate into the cake mixture. I got Despina and Jack’s approval that it tasted alright. I had already preheated the oven to 180 degrees. Using my silver cupcakes I filled my cupcake tin. I managed to make 18 cupcakes from this recipe. I baked the cupcakes for around 15 minutes.

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I left them to cool and made some buttercream. I made some vanilla and some chocolate buttercream. I coloured the vanilla buttercream a bright green colour. I used a star tip piping nozzle and piped rosettes on the top of the cupcakes. The two buttercreams contrasted really well when I added some Aero peppermint balls on top. With some of the remaining chocolate from earlier I melted it to add some more peppermint flavour. I put the chocolate in the piping bag and cut the end. I then drizzled the chocolate back and forth over the cupcake, you can add as much as you want. I was really happy with how they turned out because they were eye catching but still really simple.

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For such a last minute bake, these were quite successful. Although I haven’t had the chance to try them yet, my flatmates loved them. Peppermint isn’t a flavour I would usually use but it turned out really well. I think they look really good and are definitely a quick thing to whip up for St Patricks day. I’m sure a can of Guinness could accompany a cupcake, if you wanted to celebrate. To try something new with this recipe you could try putting some of the Aero balls into the cupcake mix to surprise the person you give them too. I’m a little disappointed my plans had to change and I couldn’t put a little more effort in but I’m still happy with how they turned out. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend and celebrate in style.

Lots of love

Hannah x