Cupcake Recipe of the Month: July

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Happy Christmas in July! It is interesting that more people say Happy 'Christmas in July' whereas during the winter Christmas season we commonly say Merry Christmas. Even though in the July Christmas is like saying "It's Christmas in July, yay", the words happy/merry occur in front of Christmas and is just interesting that we used different words for these similar events. Now to the baking!

Makes 18 cupcake's

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

6 Tbsp. butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar 

1/2 cream cheese

1/8 tsp peppermint extract

red food coloring

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place sugar and butter in large bowl and mix with a mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs one at a time. Combine flour, cocoa, powder, soda, and salt in a bowl, stir with a fork or whisk. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, starting and ending with flour. Stir in vanilla extract. Spoon batter into prepared pans and bake for 12 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pan until completely cool.  

Frosting Directions:

Combine powdered sugar,cheese, extract, and a few drops of red color in a bowl until smooth. The color should be a dark pink to light red. Top with light green sprinkles.