Rich chocolate cupcakes with Crème de Menthe buttercream

I recall telling you about my festive “puff pastry aberration” in Tesco. I suppose the other random Christmas purchase I should ‘fess up to is a bottle of Crème de Menthe. Hard to explain really – one minute it was on the shelf with its comrades, the next it was in my trolley planning a new life with me. These things happen.

Everybody smiles fondly if you show them a bottle of Crème de Menthe – it has retro chic in spades - but no one actually wants to drink it. Mr CC and I tried sipping small glasses of the green elixir and, while it wasn’t horrible, it wasn’t exactly lovely either. On the plus side though our mouths felt fresher as a result.

Mint can be an overpowering flavour in baked goods and desserts; I like a hint of mint rather than the sensation that I’m eating toothpaste. That’s why I recommend that, if you include them, use standard chocolate chips in my cupcakes; if you are a mint addict you could use chopped After Eights left over from Christmas, however, the notion of “leftover” chocolate is alien to me …it is simply chocolate I am yet to eat.

I tweaked my standard chocolate cupcake recipe by using half milk, half crème de cacao. This is a cocoa flavoured liqueur and it enhanced the chocolatiness of the cake – the texture of the batter was more like a chocolate mousse and tasted just as rich. I recommend using this if you have it. Maybe because there was less milk in the batter, we all noticed that the sponge was lighter in texture than usual.

The Crème de Menthe gave the buttercream a delicate greenness and you could enhance this with colouring. I chose not to but I admit I’m funny about adding colour and try to avoid it if possible and yes, I know that Crème de Menthe is only green because of colourings but that’s out of my control!

I find that most things with mint are best made a day or so in advance, so the flavour can soften and mellow; it can be harsh if tasted straight away.

I preferred these to my other attempt at mint cupcakes for two reasons: firstly, I found the Crème de Menthe to have a gentler, more rounded flavour than peppermint extract and, secondly, this buttercream gave a light feel in the mouth which had the effect of softening the mint.

Ingredients

For the chocolate cupcake:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk – I used 1 tablespoon milk and 1 tablespoon crème de cacao but I wouldn’t buy it especially for the recipe
Optional: 50g chocolate chips

For the buttercream:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons Crème de Menthe liqueur
Optional: green colouring

Decorate: purely optional, I used chocolate leaves to contrast against the buttercream

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Line a cupcake pan with paper cases.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, flour, cocoa and milk.

When the mixture is smooth and well combined, stir in the After Eights or chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the paper cases.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Mine took 15 minutes.

Remove from the tin as soon as possible and leave to cool on a wire rack – removing from the tin is important, as the heat of the tin will mean that the cupcakes continue to (over)cook.

Now make the buttercream: place the butter into a mixing bowl and beat until it is whipped, light and pale. Don’t be afraid if this takes 5 minutes or more – it will depend on how soft your butter is at the start.

Add half of the sifted icing sugar and beat again.

Add half of the crème de menthe and beat again.

Repeat with the remaining icing sugar and crème de menthe.

Pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcake. If you refrigerate the finished cakes the buttercream will harden.

Decorate as desired.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.