Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

Rich and super soft chocolate cupcakes, smothered with a fluffy mint buttercream frosting. If you love mint chocolate chip ice cream, you will love these cupcakes!

Chocolate + peppermint is such a classic flavour combination. What I love the most about these cupcakes is that they are really simple to make! An easy, one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe (adapted from my chocolate and salted caramel layer cake) and a very simple buttercream frosting. Perfect even for baking beginners.

These cupcakes are sweet, but not too sweet, with the perfect amount of mint. These chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting are a crowd pleaser, perfect for parties or special occasions.

Tips for the perfect choc mint cupcakes;

• Allow the butter for the buttercream frosting to get to room temperature before beating. A colder butter will create lumps. An easy way to do this is to cut the butter into cubes and set it aside while you make the cupcakes. By the time you are ready to frost, the butter should be soft and ready to beat. If you forget to do this, slowly soften in the microwave in ten second bursts at low heat.

• Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting, otherwise the buttercream will slide off!

• To achieve the same piping result for your buttercream as pictured, I used a Wilton’s 1M piping nozzle.

• The batter for these cupcakes will appear runny. Don’t panic! They will come together when baking to make the softest cupcakes you have ever eaten.

• Use a few drops of green food colouring to achieve a mint green colour in your frosting. To avoid using artificial colours, I used natural food colouring by Hopper HQ.

• Top them with your favourite chocolate mint treats! For a little something extra, crumble your favourite choc mint treats like Peppermint Crisp, Aero, after dinner mints or even finely chopped chocolate chips over the top. Yum!

For some other tasty chocolate mint treats, try these delicious recipes;

• Nut Free Choc Mint Bliss Balls
• Chocolate peppermint truffles
• Keto Choc Mint Slice Biscuits by Mad Creations

Or, for more delicious cupcake flavour combinations, try these recipes!

• Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache
• Pink lemonade cupcakes
• Caramel apple pie cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
• Soft chocolate cupcakes
• Lemon meringue cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

Rich and super soft chocolate cupcakes, smothered with a fluffy mint buttercream frosting. If you love mint chocolate chip ice cream, you will love these cupcakes!

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: baking, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Australian

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Cooling Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 12

Calories: 469kcal

Author: Andrea Geddes

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Ingredients  

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For the cupcakes

• ▢ 1 cup plain flour
• ▢ 1 cup sugar
• ▢ ½ cup cocoa powder
• ▢ 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ▢ ½ tsp salt
• ▢ 1 large egg at room temperature
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ ¼ cup canola oil
• ▢ ½ cup milk
• ▢ ½ cup boiling water

For the mint buttercream frosting

• ▢ 250 grams unsalted butter (1 cup) softened at room temperature
• ▢ 4 cups icing sugar confectioners sugar
• ▢ 2 tsp peppermint essence
• ▢ green food colouring optional
• ▢ 2-3 tsp milk

To decorate

• ▢ 1 Peppermint Crisp bar (or other chocolate, finely chopped)

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 180C° (350F). Line a 12 hole cupcake tray (a large muffin tray is best so the cupcakes don’t overflow) with patty cases.
• Add the dry ingredients (sift if lumpy) into a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Add the egg, vanilla, oil and milk and stir together until combined.
• Carefully add the boiling water and stir slowly until the water is completely incorporated into the mixture. The mixture will be runnier than normal cupcake mixture- this is normal!
• Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 patty cases.
• Bake for around 15-20 minutes, or until cupcakes have cooked completely.
• Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

For the frosting

• Beat the softened butter with a hand held mixer on high speed (or hand beat) until pale and creamy. Gradually add the icing sugar (I add ½ cup at a time) until it is incorporated and smooth.
• Add the peppermint essence and food colouring and beat to combine. If you like a strong peppermint flavour, add more essence to taste. If the mixture is too firm to pipe, add a little milk (one teaspoon at a time), until it reaches desired consistency. I used 3 tsp milk.
• Pipe the buttercream frosting over the top of the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with your favourite choc mint treats. These cupcakes are best eaten on the day or following day, but can keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Notes

After adding the boiling water to the cupcake batter, the mixture will appear quite thin and runny. This is completely normal, don’t panic! They will come together while baking and turn into the most deliciously soft cupcakes.

These cupcakes will rise quite a bit during baking. The paper cases or cupcake tins should not be filled more than around ⅔ full, or they may overflow or mushroom out too high. If you are using smaller cupcake trays, you may need to make more than 14 so that they are not too full. That just means more cupcakes for you!

These cupcakes are best eaten on the day or day after they are made, but they will stay soft and moist for days. Eat them at room temperature if possible, but store in the fridge due to the butter in the frosting. Remove from the fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before eating, where possible.

They can also be frozen (minus the frosting) until required and can be thawed in the fridge or at room temperature and then decorated.

Nutrition

Calories: 469kcal | Carbohydrates: 68g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 112mg | Potassium: 155mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 57g | Vitamin A: 561IU | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 1mg

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