Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! OK not really, but my kitchen sure did smell like Christmas today. I don’t mean to push Halloween and Thanksgiving aside, but this recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes makes me excited for the upcoming Christmas season. I was literally *this* close to turning on the Christmas music this afternoon. Then my husband reminded me that I’m behind on making the little one’s Halloween costume and I snapped back to reality.

The reason behind the cupcakes is to celebrate my husband. I don’t share details about him often but if there’s one thing you should know it’s that he’s an incredibly hard worker that always puts our family first. Two days ago he interviewed for a higher position at work and yesterday we found out he’s being promoted. Him working in law enforcement is hard on our family, we don’t always get to see him during holidays and our schedules are a complete mess most weeks. My husband works long hours to provide for us, all while driving almost an hour away on his days off to finish graduate school. I am so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful husband, who also happens to be an incredible father to our children. I wanted to celebrate him for everything he does for our family everyday. This evening we went out to dinner then came home and enjoyed a chocolate peppermint cupcake.

We loved the cupcakes, especially the kids!

For this recipe I tried the new Cool Whip chocolate frosting. Have you tried it yet? It has a great light and fluffy consistency that’s the perfect substitute to homemade frosting. I love homemade frosting but  I’ll admit sometimes I like something quick and easy.

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake Recipe:

1 box Betty Crocker triple chocolate cake mix

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1tsp peppermint extract

1 cup Andes peppermint crunch

Frosting:

Cool Whip Chocolate Frosting

Andes peppermint crunch

Ghirardelli Peppermint bark

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and fill muffin pan with cupcake liners. Mix eggs, water, oil, and cake mix together. Add peppermint extract to batter and mix thoroughly. Fill pan and bake for 18-20 minutes; allow to cool. Fill pastry bag with COOL WHIP frosting and pipe onto cupcakes. Top with peppermint crunch and bark if desired. Serve immediately or store in freezer until ready to eat.