Thin Mint Cupcakes

As I'm sure you're aware, Calories DON'T count if its for charity. Calories also don't count on: major holidays, your birthday, during power outages, and after breakups. Since a portion of your purchase of Thin Mints goes to the lovely Girls Scouts of America, you can eat boxes upon boxes. Obviously, I chose to turn this into an opportunity to make Thin Mint Cupcakes...delish!

Thin Mint Cupcakes: 

Ingredients: 

• 
  
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2  eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• Mint Extract 
• 1 cup boiling water



Basically, combine all your dry ingredients. And then add, eggs, milk, oil , and vanilla. Then add the boiling water! It WILL make your batter thin! THEN comes time for a choice: You can either add mint extract to your cupcakes and make them chocolate mint and then do vanilla buttercream frosting OR you can make plain chocolate cupcakes and make a mint buttercream frosting...I chose the former!



Then place the thin mints in the bottom of your lined cupcake tin. Don't forget to spray with Pam! (Side Note: if its not Girl Scout season, you can buy Keebler Grasshopper Cookies, which are basically the same...but the calories WILL count!) Put them in the oven at 350 or for about 20 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and all that jazz. 

Then, I frosted with Vanilla Buttercream. Basically whip together two sticks of butter, three and a half cups of powdered sugar, one tablespoon of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and about four tablespoons of heavy cream or half and half! IF you went the plain chocolate cupcake route, add the peppermint extract to your vanilla buttercream! Last, I added some green food-dye in an attempt to make a shamrock-shake-colored frosting! It actually turned out pretty accurate and the picture above does NOT do it justice!