Chocolate Mint Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache filling and Chocolate Mint Frosting

Hmmm is one missing??

I topped them with leftover ganache and white chocolate chips!

I love Isa Chandra/Terry Romero's "Basic Chocolate Cupcake" from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and tend to use that as the base of a lot of my cupcakes. This is a personal variation. The cupcake is vegan but the ganache and frosting are not!



For cupcakes:

1 cup coconut milk (recipe calls for soy but I'm allergic to that!)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract (or peppermint - the mint extract is more spearminty) (taste the batter if you'd like to add more extract - a little goes a long way!)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Whisk together the coconut milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and mint extract, to the coconut milk mixture and beat until foamy (will look kind of oily). In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache Filling (I used double this recipe but had a lot left over...):

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Boil heavy whipping cream and pour over chips. Let stand 7 minutes, then whisk together. When cupcakes are cool, pipe into cupcakes with a filling tip.

Chocolate Mint Frosting:

6 tbsp butter

1 cup confectioner's sugar

4 tbsp cocoa powder

2 to 3 tbsp milk (optional)

1/4 teaspoon mint extract (again, taste to see if you'd like to add more)

Any leftover ganache

Cream butter. Combine confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder and sift into butter, mixing again. Add about 1/2 cup ganache if you have any left over (I suppose you can always make more). Add milk if frosting seems too thick and mix again. Pipe onto cupcakes.