on peppermint love cupcakes...

Hi ya'll. Happy Valentine's Day! Today was a very pleasant day. I had whole day off. Sebastian has half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays for his speech class and since the Mr. has been spending a few days at his dad's auto shop (remember their in Mexico) I had to take off to be home with Sebastian. No complaints here, my friend. Anyways, on to my fancy treat. In honor of v-day I made Peppermint Love Cupcakes.

Ingredients:
Makes up to 16-18 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 cup sour cream
16-18 peppermint patties, I used York! Got mini ones from the bulk candy isle in Wegmans! 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. 

In a medium bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cocoa. Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your kitchen aid, if your as lucky as me, cream together the butter and sugar until it's nice and fluffy. It takes a few minutes. Add the eggs next, one at a  time until each one is blended in with the butter mixture. Then add the vanilla. Once everything is completely mixed start adding the dry mixture into your butter mixture. Do one cup of the dry mixture into the butter mixture while still mixing it with your mixer. Next add 1/2 of the sour cream to the same mixture. Another cup of dry, and the last 1/2 cup of sour cream. Then finish off with the dry. I like doing things in this sequence so everything has time to combine together. Sebastian helped me out with doing this part :) 

Once it's all mixed up your cupcake batter should look like this...

Now for the fun part. Take your cupcake tray and put your fun foils in the holes. I had perfect cute V-day themed ones!

You want to fill the bottom of the cups with about 1 tablespoon full of batter. I used a small spatula to evenly spread out the batter along the bottom. Next you unwrap the York patties and place them right in the middle of the batter. Sebastian enjoyed this part. He'd get batter on his fingers and lick them off :)

Fill the cups up the rest of the way, another 1 1/2 tablespoon of batter.

Pop them in the oven for about 15-18 minutes. Sit back, put your feet up and relax. If your like me you'd be on the couch sporting Valentine's Day sock and crocheting away on an afghan. Just saying.

When you hear the ding (if you have one because I surely don't) then your cuppy cakes are all done. 

All you need is some frosting. I made up some Peppermint Buttercream Frosting. Ingredients are below and all you do is mix everything together, easy peasy. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp

2 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (I recommended peppermint opposed to mint. Mint just makes things taste like toothpaste!)

green food coloring, optional. I wanted a little color!

Enjoy! I know people feel very strongly for this holiday. You either love it or hate it. I get both sides. Any which way, I think it's a beautiful thing that society sets a day out of all 365 and devote it to love. Such a complex yet simple thing. Love. I love, LOVE. It's such a great thing. I wouldn't be who I am if people didn't show me love when I needed it most and I hope to do the same for others in my lifetime. Hope everyone is not only loving your loved ones but also yourself. xoxo. 

♥A.