A couple of weeks ago we had a potluck at church. I always get excited for potlucks because they give me an opportunity to make a new dessert without having to worry about it sitting in my house and tempting me to eat it for the next several days. I decided to try grasshopper fudge cupcakes.
I remember the first time I ever heard of grasshopper cake. I was probably six years old and I was completely disgusted that someone would make a cake out of grasshoppers! It was a great relief to discover that the term “grasshopper” simply referred to a cake or pie that is chocolate mint flavored.
To make these into grasshopper cupcakes I decided to make a mint chocolate flavored cupcake with a mint buttercream icing and then fill it with a fudge filling, to balance out some of the mint. I have a Chocolate Fudge Butter Icing recipe that I really like so I knew I would use that for the filling but I have never made mint cake or mint buttercream before so I went searching for some new recipes. My first stop was my Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book. It didn’t let me down because I found both recipes in there. I love Martha’s Cupcakes book, it is filled with so many neat decorating ideas as well as some really tasty cupcake recipes. I like it so much that I am going to give away a copy of the book to one of my readers next week so keep reading to find out how to enter my drawing.
One thing to keep in mind when it comes to Martha, is that her recipes always seem to be a bit more complicated and time consuming than most. The cake recipe wasn’t too bad but the buttercream recipe took much longer than most of my icing recipes. I feel like it was worth it though. It had a nice fresh mint flavor that you just can’t get with extract alone. Overall the cupcake had a fairly strong mint flavor. If you are a mint lover, like me, you will like it but if you want something a little milder you could also just make a regular chocolate cupcake and use the mint buttercream or make the mint cake and use a regular buttercream.
Click on the links below for printable versions of all three recipes.
Mint Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book)
Mint Buttercream Icing (adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book)
Chocolate Fudge Butter Icing (used for the filling)
A word of advice I want to pass along is make sure that you use peppermint extract when you are making the cupcakes and icing. I was out of peppermint extract but found some mint extract
in my cabinet and decided to just use that on my first batch. Big Mistake! Mint extract has spearmint in it, which is a different taste than peppermint. They ended up tasting like toothpaste. I had to throw that batch out, make a trip to the store and start again. Learn from my mistake.
Once I made all the cupcakes I added Andes mints as toppers then displayed them in a cupcake stand
. Don’t they look pretty and tasty? (*Note* The cupcake stand in the link is a 4 tier stand. It doesn’t appear that Wilton makes the 3 tier stand, as seen in my photo, anymore.)
And here is what they looked like on the inside with the fudge filling.
If you have never filled a cupcake before you can check out my blog entry on Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes for instructions on how to easily do this.
I took some pictures of me decorating the cupcakes. They turned out pretty blurry because it was at night but I still want to include them so that you can see how I did it.
The mint buttercream icing is a white icing but I wanted it colored minty green so that it would have more of an appearance of being mint flavored. To do this I colored it with a small amount of Wilton Kelly Green icing color.
After the cupcakes were cooled and filled, I used a decorating bag filled with the mint buttercream and fitted with an Ateco #808 tip
. I swirled one layer of icing on the top of the cupcake.
Next I poured some chocolate jimmies (some may refer to these as sprinkles) on a plate and rolled the cupcake so that the edges of the swirl pressed into the jimmies.
Then I swirled another layer of icing on top of the first.
And finished off by cutting an Andes mint in half, at an angle, and placing it on top of the cupcake.
And, once again, there is the finished cupcake. Isn’t it beautiful?
If you like the flavors of this cupcake I highly recommend trying out some of Martha’s other cupcake recipes too. Here is her Cupcakes book that I was talking about.
I am going to give away a copy of this book to one of my lucky readers next week. If you want to be entered into my drawing, leave a comment at the end of this blog entry telling me what your favorite candy is. I will also give you a second chance to enter by liking my Facebook page and leaving me a comment (any comment) on my FB wall. You have until Monday, October 1st at midnight, MST, to enter. I will announce the winner on Tuesday, October 2nd. Good luck everyone!
Until next time, God Bless and Sweet Dreams.
I just got this blog post, the dates were yesterday. I will still tell you my favorite candy. Not sure if mean my favorite candy to eat, bake with or make so I had to do some thinking..
Eating= that’s tough I do my best no to eat candy but I love Reese peanut butter cups, caramel, I can’t say just one thing
Bake = again very tough I I used mini peanut butter cups a lot of course chocolate chips as well.
Make= beer caramel & marshmellow Because people love them.
Michelle, thank you so much! I accidentally put in the wrong dates!! I just went in and changed them. I was looking at the calendar and thinking that we were a week earlier than we are. Oh boy the time is flying by on me. 🙂 I’ve got you entered for both your comment here and on FB. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Snickers!!
Oh, Michelle – stop with the delicious things!! This one goes over the top because I am definitely a mint lover. Your treats (well, pictures) make my mouth water, your cakes make my jaw drop in awe.
I actually already have the Martha Cupcakes book, but I had to tell you how delicious these cupcakes look.
Thank you Gerb! You will have to give this one a try. I’m pretty sure you will love it, especially if you are a mint lover. I appreciate the compliment and will try to continue to make you drool! 🙂
I LOVE candy. I have yet to find any that I didn’t like.
Debbie, you sound like a woman after my own heart.
Mmmmm those look delicious! My favorite candy, though, that’s a hard one…. I’d have to say Chocolove’s raspberry dark chocolate. It’s brilliant!
My hubby saw these and wants them! My favorite candy…. Junior Mints.
My favourite candy is some form of toffee! I like regular english toffee, I like sponge toffee, and I LOVE it if it’s covered in chocolate.
My all time fav candy is, kit-kak yum yum:0)
My favourite candy the Cadbury’s milk chocolate and Caramel bar.
you make me want to bake every time i see one of your posts!
love any type of candy that has chocolate! yum!
York Peppermint Patties!
Can’t wait to try the grasshopper cupcakes!
I have a thing for Jr Mints so these cupcakes are right up my alley! Thanks for the chance to win!
Congratulations to our winner, Paula Ames! I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do. Thank you to everyone who entered.