chocolate cupcakes + mint buttercream

Alright, so these were quite possible the yummiest little cupcakes I've ever had. One of the cutest cupcake bakers, Betsy, introduced me to this delectable recipe! Her and I slaved for hours busting out thousands of cupcakes for her table at the Bust Craftacular. Any ways... I stole a couple of chocolate cupcakes (and peppermint buttercream!) from the copious amounts we baked to bring over to my tattoo artist. The next day I piped some buttercream on the little suckers and made my merry way to the subway...

I will admit my piping techniques are a little better than that, but hell! I was in a rush. Every one at the shop flipped over them, and when I made them on Christmas for my family... then too! Must say, these cupcakes may just be a chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream and crushed candy canes but they are damn delicious. Okay, on to the recipe!

Chocolate Cupcakes for too many people (might wanna cut this in half!):
10 oz All Purpose Flour
4 oz Cocoa
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
8 oz Buttermilk
6 tbsp Water
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
8 oz Butter
4 oz Chocolate (we used huge blocks chopped down)
12 oz Sugar
7.5 oz Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs

- Melt butter and chocolate together
- Add all dry ingredients into separate bowl
- Cream sugar, dk br sugar, and eggs
- alternate dry and wet ingredients
- slowly paddle in melted chocolate

(not exactly sure if this is how we did it in the kitchen, but at home i did it this way and came out fine... ya kno them basic skills)

Peppermint Swiss Meringue Buttercream (whole lotta too):
4 cups Sugar
1 cup Water
2 tsp Salt
6 Eggs (room temp)
2 1/2 lbs Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Peppermint Extract

- Softball (240 degrees) sugar, water, salt
- Whisk eggs and vanilla extract at full volume
- incorporate softball into eggs until cool
- add butter (one piece at a time)
- add peppermint extract to taste!