Wondering what to do with all of your leftover candy canes? Fear not, I have a solution! Candy Cane Cupcakes!
Now, mine are filled with a blue White Chocolate Ganache because that’s what I used to surprise my family with the sex of our baby (missed that post? It’s here). If it were me, I would skip the ganache for ‘normal’ cupcakes. It was just too much sweetness in one cupcake. But if you’re absolutely dying for the ganache recipe, just ask me for it in the comments section.
Vanilla-Peppermint Cupcake Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* 1/4 tsp. coarse salt
* 1/2 cup whole milk
* 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
* 1 tsp. peppermint extract
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 large egg , room temperature
* 2 large egg whites
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line the cupcake pan with adorable cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients together. Sift if you must but I always skip that step.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the milk and extracts together. Set aside.
4. In yet another bowl (yes, I am trying to give you a mountain of dishes to wash. Sorry ’bout that), cream the butter. This involves beating the butter until it’s light and fluffy. Normally, this takes around 3ish minutes. After the butter is creamed, start to add the sugar, 1/2 cup at a time until it’s all in and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs to the sugar/butter mixture and beat on medium.
6. Drop the mixer speed to low and beat in 1/2 of the dry mixture. Now, beat in 1/2 of the wet mixture. Dump the rest of the dry in and the rest of the wet. Mix until just blended.
7. Spoon batter into cupcake tins, filling 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake. I did and they were a wee bit dry.
Vanilla-Peppermint Frosting:
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/8 tsp. salt
* 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
* 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
* 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
* 1/2 tsp. milk
Crushed Peppermint Candy Canes (I used a rolling pin to crush. It was a labor of patient love). I used at least 8 candy canes.
1. Cream the butter and salt (medium speed for about 3 minutes) until light and fluffy.
2. Reduce speed to low and add in the rest of the ingredients.
3. When cupcakes are cooled, frost the cupcakes.
4. Once the frosting is as smooth as possible, take a paintbrush and put into warm water. Paint the cupcakes smooth (or as smooth as you can get it.)
5. Put the crushed candy canes into a bowl and dip your wet, smooth cupcakes into the crushed candy canes until the cupcake is covered nicely with the crushed candy canes.
Store these in an airtight container. Leaving out in the open causes the candy canes to weep and melt.
Even niece dog Samantha wanted in on the cupcake action; the frosting is that good!
Sadly, cupcakes aren’t for doggies so we got the pouty sad look. Don’t feel bad for Samantha; we did give her a dog bone. =)
Ha ha – poor Sammy. She is SUCH a perfectly sweet doggie and she did get treats for sure. =) Just not cupcake treats.
I hope you try the cupcakes – let me know what you think when you make them =)
Awww look at her! She’s so upset! Tell her that if she eats those cupcakes, she has to go to the dentist to get her teeth pulled out haha! I guess I’ll need to go too if I am to eat something that sweet! I happen to have the most sensitive chompers even though I’m quite the sweet tooth. I can’t wait to make some of those for me and the kids when I get back to Scottsdale in Arizona.
I love to glaze / drizzle chocolate buttermilk cake (super dense) with chocolate ganache, then top it with raspberries and whipped cream.
I’m anxious to try the white chocolate.
Also, is this a good basic recipe
for cupcakes? I was thinking about also trying it substituting the candy canes/peppermint extract and try coconut.
LOVE coconut! ๐
Thanks for sharing!
Yummy! And I have a bag of candy cane crumbs left in a ziplock bag from when we made peppermint bark…
Ha! We can all wish. Can you make that happen? If I believed that, I’d be a whale. We are SO lucky to have frequently visiting vendors and lovely customers who drop by with desserts so if I went by that theory, you’d never get me out the doors at BB. LOL!
It is INSANITY decadent. You could frost with it as well … Well, more like drizzle/frost.
Delicious. Delicious.
I know, right? But lucky for her, she is very loved so that has to make up
for some of that, right? =)
Samantha is bar none, the sweetest dog I have ever met. She is so patient
and kind =) We’re lucky that my brother and sister in law adopted her. She
was the runt of the litter and just has the sweetest personality.
Sugar detox! Love that. I’m not detoxing a thing right now since I’m
pregnant and just trying to stay even-keeled with no diets, no fasting, no
normal after-holiday craziness but come May, I’ll join you in that for sure!
=)
Thanks! Can’t wait to try it.
…but its no fat if someonegives it to you. right?
Those look so yum! I love anything with mint/peppermint. I am going to try to resist making them (although I do have some left over candy canes…) since I am trying to sugar detox this week. Maybe next week? ๐
8 oz. White Chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup Whipping Cream
2 Tablespoons Butter
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set
aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium
heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the
chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
Pure fat. Pure Sugar. Pure insanity.
Samantha is the sweetest, most well-behaved dog. She didn’t steal any of the
cupcakes and was absolutely a doll about posing for the photo. =) I think
ganache is a soft chocolate that is often used as filling or in place of
icing on insanely rich cakes. If you find out differently, let me know! LOL!
=)
Great job! I generally can make the entire batch and then just have 1/2 of a
cupcake (that’s what I did with these ones). Something about making them
gives me such pleasure that the sugar is secondary… =)
These look really nice! I wish I could make them and then resist eating them all– alas, I am back on the healthy eating bandwagon to lose those stubborn last 10 pounds!
Love Samantha’s boo boo look. We get that quite often around here too. Note to self: Look up GANACHE = what a fabulous word. Must use this french and very suave word, after we find out the true meaning.
File recipe for when I can eat sugar again……..this recipe is to die for!
XOXO!
This is great! Going to save this one.
I make chocolate ganache, but don’t have a white chocolate receipe. Would love to have yours!
Thanks for sharing! ๐
LOL that was totally cute at the end…poor Samantha…she only got a bone….I bet she was drooling over the cupcakes…!
Ohhh…sorry for Samantha !
Gorgeous- I made something similar, Sugar cookies with smashed candy canes on top. Delicious!