Double Chocolate Mint Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day

My 16 year old daughter, Eleanor, is obsessed with making cupcakes and cakes lately!  For Christmas she got a cake decorating kit and lessons, and she has been making sweets constantly ever since.  Last week she made these Double Chocolate Mint cupcakes, which are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.  The are chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate mousse and topped with mint flavored whipped cream frosting, and they tasted amazing.

Eleanor used a boxed cake mix to make the chocolate cupcakes for the base.  Then after they cooled she cut out a hole in the middle of the cupcakes and filled it with chocolate mousse. Her brother volunteered to eat all the cake cut out from the middle of the cupcakes, because he is helpful like that!

You can see from the picture that she didn’t get the mousse as smooth as it was supposed to be, but it still tasted great, so who cares!  Plus the frosting covered it all up anyway.

Then she made a whipped cream icing to top the cupcakes off with.  She modified this recipe for frosting from Allrecipes.com, and it was delicious.  It uses a little cream cheese to make the frosting thicker, and it worked very well and it was easy to pipe onto the cupcakes.  She wanted a frosting that was rich but not overly sweet, and this was perfect.

I was a little dubious about putting chocolate mousse in the middle of the cupcakes, but it was delicious.  The only drawback is that they had to be refrigerated after they were made, but they were eaten so fast that wasn’t a big problem!

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Yield: 12

Double Chocolate Mint Cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day

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Chocolate mint filled cupcakes.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

• chocolate cake mix and ingredients from box to make

Mousse:

• 2 Tablespoon butter
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon mint extract
• green food coloring
• 2 cup heavy cream

Instructions

1. Bake cupcakes from cake mix and let cool, following the directions on the box.
2. To make the chocolate mousse first heat the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler over low heat. We have found that a double boiler works much better than the microwave, even though the microwave seems quicker! Stir the mixture thoroughly until it is all melted and smooth. I think this is where Eleanor messed up up on our cupcakes, because the chocolate wasn't all quite melted.
3. Then add the 3 egg yolks and stir completely. Put the mixture in the refrigerator while you whip the egg whites and cream
4. Whip the egg whites with 1/8 c. of the sugar until stiff peaks form. Set the egg whites aside, clean out the mixer bowl, and whip the cream with the remaining 1/8 c. sugar until soft peaks form.
5. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture gently, and then fold in the cream. Refrigerate for about half an hour.
6. Meanwhile, cut out the center of the cupcakes and put the extra cake aside. Once the mousse has chilled a little spoon it into the cupcakes and refrigerate the cupcakes to set the mousse.
7. To make the frosting mix the cream cheese, sugar, food coloring and mint extract in the mixer. Then slowly add in the cream, whipping until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
8. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and enjoy.

Notes

Nutrition facts are estimates.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 388Saturated Fat: 19gCholesterol: 134mgSodium: 114mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 4g