Choc-mint crazy

My older daughter is a huge fan of anything choc-mint (just like her mummy), and requested choc-mint cupcakes to take into school for her class for her 8th birthday. Too often cupcakes go to waste as children rarely get through them. You know the story. . . you slave away in the kitchen just so a child can lick off the icing and leave the cake behind or only make it half way through! This lesson has taught me to stick with smaller, bite-size portions for birthday treats like mini cupcakes. In years gone by I have sent teacups into school. They are always a big hit and so very simple to put together when you don't have time to bake. Australians would be familiar with these, they sell for about $2 AUD in some cafes. You assemble them to look like a mini teacup using an Arnott's tic doc biscuit as the saucer, a marshmallow for the cup with half a musk lifesaver secured onto the side as a handle, plus a chocolate freckle on top to represent the frothy hot drink inside the cup . . . I'll post a photo when I make them next for my daughter's party. Anyway, back to the choc-mint cupcakes, this year I developed my own recipe for the Thermomix and for something different stuck a lolly pop stick in the bottom! Much like a cake pop without all the extra work :) 

Choc-mint mini cupcake pops
makes 30

ingredients
100g Lindt Mint Intense dark chocolate
120g butter, softened
190ml buttermilk (or use half natural yoghurt + half milk)
3 large eggs
140g raw caster sugar
240g self-raising flour
30g raw cacao

method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a mini muffin pans or line with patty cases.
2. Break the chocolate into pieces and add to the TM bowl. Grate for 8 seconds on speed 8.
3. Chop butter into chunks and add to the grated chocolate together with the eggs and buttermilk. Beat for 1 minute at 37°C on speed 4.
4. Add the caster sugar, SR flour and raw cacao to the TM bowl. Mix on speed 4 for 10 seconds, scrape the sides of the bowl, then mix for a further 5 seconds or until just combined.
5. Spoon in the muffins holes, filling almost to the top edge. You want the muffins to rise with a rounded top over the lip. 
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until done when tested with a skewer.
7. Allow to cool in the pan before removing to a cooling rack.
8. Ice with melted white chocolate tinted with green food colouring and flavoured with peppermint essence. I used 300g of white chocolate to ice 30 mini cupcakes. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles or a crushed Peppermint Crisp bar. 

Variation ideas                                                                                                                                         

• If you can't get hold of mint chocolate, use a good quality 70% dark chocolate and add 1 tsp of peppermint essence or 4 drops of peppermint oil.   
• Ice with dark chocolate melts and decorate with green sprinkles. 
• A green tinted, mint flavoured buttercream would also go really nicely if you serve up these cupcakes without the lolly pop sticks either as the mini or full-size version. 
• You could use half white & half wholemeal flour, even spelt for this recipe :)

No Thermomix?                                                                                                                                  

• Use a food processor for step 2 and combine the wet and dry ingredients together in an electric mixer. Be careful not to over-mix or your cupcake will be tough rather than light and fluffy.
• Take the eggs and buttermilk out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you make the cupcakes. Room temperature eggs will give you more volume on beating than refrigerated eggs.