Growing up, my family was never big on celebrating Christmas, or any North American holiday for that matter. In fact, I didn’t know who or what Santa was until I started kindergarten. The day I learnt about Santa and his elves in the North Pole was life-changing. Of course, the excitement didn’t last long:
“MOM! DAD!”
“Hey, how was school?”
“There’s an old fat man named Santa who flies around the world in his sleigh giving presents on Christmas eve!!!!”
“Oh honey, Santa’s not real.”
Then they proceeded by laughing at me for a solid 5 minutes. (Jerks!)
Weird thing is, I’ve always loved anything and everything Christmas related. Probably because I was deprived of it in my early years 😛
Now that I’m older, I try to make up for it! I listen to Christmas music (Michael Buble to be exact) from October to January, eat EXTRA chocolate, organize a gift exchange with my cousins, and watch A Charlie brown Christmas at least 3 times.
I’m going to add these peppermint chocolate cupcakes to my growing list of traditions as well. I made my go-to chocolate cake, filled it with ganache then topped it with a hint-of-mint peppermint buttercream. My sister had one and actually liked it – that says A LOT!
What are some of your favourite Christmas traditions?
Oh and if you’ve ever wondered how I take my photos… here’s a picture of my setup. I’m very minimalistic when it comes to photo set-up 😛
Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk* (I used 1 cup skim milk with 1 tbsp white vinegar)
- 1 cup strong black coffee
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
How To
1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
3. Bake 15-20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Frost as desired. Yields 35 ccupcakes.
Peppermint Buttercream
Ingredients
2.5 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp vanilla extract
mint extract (add to taste)
1. Beat butter and icing sugar together until light in colour. My trick to getting super fluffy buttercream is to whip the heck out of the butter for 15 minutes.
2. Mix in vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract.
3. Add mint extract little by little (a little goes a long way!!!) until you like it.
I actually love that you included your photo set up!! I need to start using a white backdrop more! These cupcakes are GORGEOUS!! Your bakery skills have blossomed SO much! I think you should do a post about your new job!! Along with tricks you’ve learned there!!! YES!
aw thanks brittany! but to be honest, I haven’t learnt much at the bakery in terms of pastry skills 🙁 BUT im getting better at being a more efficient baker. at my job, we PRODUCE A LOOOOT of stuff
I’m so jealous of your photo set up, I need to get more professional lol.
I LOVE CHRISTMAS TOO! You poor lil thing, getting laughed at lol.
and I LOOOOVE these cupcakes! Chocolate chocolatey goodness, and that peppermint frosting! YUM!
LOL my set up is opposite of professional 😛 guess what kinda camera i use? a 6 year old 12MP compact camera lololol
This looks so good and I have the same photo set up 🙂
ahaha! simple is the way to go right? 😛
Giiiirl, your striped piping is perfection, I’ve tried once to tint the sides of my pastry bag but somehow it never came out quite as defined as yours. Maybe because I wasn’t using gel? And love all that natural light your house has! Thank you for find me so that I can find you 😀