Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
Mint and Chocolate are the perfect combination in today's scratch Mint Chocolate Cupcake recipe!
This delicious dessert consists of our go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes paired with an easy, flavorful mint buttercream filling and frosting. They are super moist and soft with the perfect balance of mint and chocolate. Keep these in mind for your next special occasion!
Table of Contents
How to Make Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
You can find the full, printable recipe for mint chocolate cupcakes at the bottom of this post. We find that it always helps to add step by step photos! Here is a quick look at our process.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
- Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of milk.) Mix just until combined.
- Mixing slowly, add the cup of hot coffee at this time and mix just until combined. The batter will be very thin. Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners (about ¼ cup batter per cupcake).
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 16-18 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary and so peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
- Move each cupcake to the cooling rack just after baking. Cool completely before frosting.
Mint Buttercream Frosting
Now that the chocolate cupcakes are cooling, it's time to make the mint buttercream frosting. This delicious recipe will be used as a filling as well as a frosting.
This buttercream, which is a variation of our classic vanilla buttercream recipe, contains softened butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, peppermint flavoring, and milk.
It pipes great and pairs so nicely with our chocolate cupcakes!
Filling the Cupcakes
You could simply frost the cupcakes with mint buttercream and have a great dessert, but for an added boost of flavor, we injected each cupcake with mint buttercream.
To add a filling, fill a disposable piping bag with mint buttercream, snip away the end to create an opening (maybe about ½ inch opening), and insert halfway into the cupcake. Squeeze for a few seconds and then remove.
Repeat for all of the cupcakes. (If you have a cupcake to spare, you can do a trial run and slice it in half, to get an idea of how much filling you are using. You could also just pipe the buttercream onto a plate for 3 seconds to see if you are happy with the amount and adjust as needed.)
Decorating the Cupcakes
Decorate the cupcakes however you'd like! We kept things simple and used the same piping bag (with no tip) that we used for filling the cupcakes. We started piping a circle of frosting on the outer edge of the cupcake and spiraled inward (and up).
We topped each cupcake mini peppermint patties!
Recipe FAQs
More Mint Chocolate Cakes and Cupcakes
We have many more mint chocolate cakes and cupcakes for you to try! Some of our favorites are Mint Oreo Cake, Mint Chocolate Chip Cake, and Peppermint Patty Cake from mix.
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (226g) Butter should still hold its shape but easily dent when pressed.
- 2 cups sugar (400g)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (Place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if in a hurry.)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (54g)
- 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour (322g)
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (don't skip the sifting) (82g)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda (10g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (2g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 1 cup milk (220g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- 1 cup very hot coffee, it can be instant or brewed (220g)
- cupcake liners
For the Mint Buttercream
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (354g)
- 7 cups powdered sugar (805g) (Adjust up or down slightly to your liking)
- 1-1½ teaspoons Peppermint Extract Start with 1 teaspoon and adjust amount to your liking. (flavor will intensify slightly over time). (Mint Extract is available in stores also but we prefer the peppermint extract. We use McCormick.)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup milk adjust based on desired consistency (60g)
Decoration
- We used mini Peppermint Patties as toppers. You could also use full size and slice them into halves or quarters.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla. Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
- Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of milk.) Mix just until combined.
- Slowly add the cup of hot coffee at this time, mixing slowly just until combined. The batter will be very thin. Don't worry this is how it should be.
- Scoop batter into the cupcake liners. You'll use about ¼ cup of batter per cupcake.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 16-18 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched or an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary and so peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
For the Mint Buttercream
- Cream the softened butter until smooth.
- Blend in the peppermint extract.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. I slow down the mixer to very slow. (#2 on the Kitchenaid) for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.
- If your buttercream is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit more milk.
Filling the Cupcakes (optional)
- If you would like to fill your cupcakes as we did, load a disposable piping bag with mint buttercream and snip away the end (about ½ inch opening). Insert the bag halfway into the cupcake and squeeze for about 3 seconds to fill. Repeat for each cupcake. Then frost.
- Before filling the cupcakes, you can do a trial run if you have a cupcake to spare, and then slice it in half. This will show you how much filling you are putting in and you can adjust to your liking. You could also do a trial run on a plate (counting the seconds it takes to reach the desired amount).
Decorating
- Decorate however you'd like! We swirled frosting onto our cupcakes with the same disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away that we used for the filling. (However swirls with large star tips like 2D or 1M are great options too). Top with mini peppermint patties (or regular size, sliced into wedges or halves.)
Notes
- This recipe makes about 9 cups of batter. This makes about 36 cupcakes (assuming each cupcake has about ¼ cup batter).
- This recipe can be halved.
- Store cupcakes in an airtight container, under a cake dome, or in a sealed bakery box. After 1-2 days at room temperature, move to the refrigerator for freshness.
- If you refrigerate, remember that they will have the best flavor and texture at room temperature- therefore, it is best to move to the kitchen counter 1-2 hours before serving.
- Bake in advance and freeze for up to three months. Line the cupcakes up on cake boards, wrap in plastic wrap and foil, and freeze. To thaw, move to the kitchen counter, still wrapped, for 30 minutes before loosening or removing wrapping. Then, decorate as usual.
Yummy! :-)