Andes Mint Cupcakes

First off, I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! I was put into a food coma and ready for bed at about 7pm last night, so mine was a success. =]
I am really excited to share these cupcakes. I was invited to a cupcake exchange party last weekend and was thrilled to have the chance at making these.

These cupcakes were a chocolate cake with chocolate mint ganache, mint cream cheese frosting, chocolate mint drizzle, and topped with an Andes mint. A lot of steps went into these cakes, but they each added a delicious addition to these cupcakes.

Batter

*Ahem* Don't mind the empty spots...

This was the most annoying step...unwrapping all of those mints!

The cakes turned out great! They were so light and fluffy that I was scared to tear them when I was taking them out of the pan. Next I had to top the cooled cupcakes with the ganache. I could have filled them with it, but I didn't have my tip for that, so I just decided to spread it over the top.

Trust me, if I would have stopped after this step, these cupcakes would still have been great. But there is no way I can eat a cupcake without frosting, so onto the next step; the mint cream cheese frosting.

I added a tiny bit of green color to give it that minty look. It doesn't really show up that great in the picture, but it looked great on the cupcakes.

I actually really liked the contrast of the ganache against the frosting, so I was happy I went with the spread instead of filling them.

These may be my favorite cupcakes that I have made so far. Trust me, they were not overly sweet AT ALL. Everything was really balanced and there was the perfect amount of mint. They also looked like holiday cupcakes, so they were a great addition to all of the other lovely cupcakes that I got to try at the party. I hope everyone like them, and I really think you should all add these to your holiday party menus =]
Click here for the recipe. If you try them out, I would love to know how they go for you!!