In the chocolate cupcake battle between fresh spearmint and bottled peppermint extract, so far the peppermint mint extract is winning. “It’s sort of like a thin mint, reincarnated as a cupcake,” I declared to Garrett, about the peppermint extract version, frustrated that my spearmint experiments weren’t working as well. “A thin mint cupcake? I would SO eat that!” countered Garrett. We grow a lot of spearmint, so if I could come up with a recipe for a mint chocolate cupcake that would put a lot of this mint to good use, that would be great. But after several experiments, I must simply declare that peppermint extract is the winner. Not only is it much easier to work with, but the flavor just pairs better with chocolate than spearmint. These peppermint chocolate mint cupcakes, flavored with mint extract, really do taste like a cupcake version of thin mints. I’ve given all of the ones I’ve made away because after eating half a dozen of these addictive cakelettes, I just can’t eat any more.

Continue reading "Chocolate Mint Cupcakes" »