Thin Mints Cupcakes are a scrumptious peppermint chocolate cupcake with bits of Thin Mints cookies topped with refreshing peppermint buttercream frosting and a Thin Mints cookie! It's a delicious way to showcase the popular Thin Mints cookies!
Friends, it's Girl Scouts cookie time! You're about to see a lot of sweet faces selling cookies at big box stores, grocery stores and farmer's markets. Of course, I do like to try the new cookies, but Thin Mints will always be my favorite. These chocolate peppermint cupcakes topped with Thin Mints come from a time period in my life where my cupcake phase overlapped with my Girl Scouts leader phase. The two just go together so deliciously! And like my Thin Mints cheesecake recipe, it's an awesome way to celebrate and take a favorite Girl Scout cookie to the next level!
Ingredients
- White sugar
- Salted butter
- Cake flour
- Cocoa powder
- Buttermilk
- Eggs
- Thin Mint cookies
- Peppermint extract
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Powdered sugar
- Heavy whipping cream
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions
- Cake flour - for these Thin Mints cupcakes, you can substitute all purpose flour with corn starch for the cake flour. For this recipe, measure 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour. Remove 3 tablespoons of the flour and add 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. Then sift the all purpose flour and cornstarch together twice to combine and aerate the mixture.
Equipment
When making standard size cupcakes, I highly recommend using a large cookie scoop. That way, the cupcakes are easily all the same size. Filling the muffin tins goes much quicker too. The large 4 tablespoon cookie scoop is the perfect size for making cupcakes.
Storage
Store these Thin Mints cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Next Level Tips
- My personal preference is no added food coloring for the peppermint buttercream frosting when there's a full Thin Mints cookie on top. Thin Mints cookies have a very distinctive shape. Having a full cookie on top lets everyone know exactly what flavor to expect without the food coloring. However, you can certainly add green food coloring to the buttercream. This will be our secret, but I've also used blanched and ground spinach for a green food coloring.
- Use a high quality cocoa powder. Like I mentioned in my Chocolate Sweet Rolls recipe, my very favorite cocoa powder is Valrhona brand found on Amazon and at Whole Foods. After Valrhona, I'd recommend Guittard or Ghirardelli brands which can be found in regular grocery stores.
- For buttercream frosting, my favorite piping tips for frosting are the Wilton 1A for a round tip and a Wilton (or Ateco) 1M for a star tip. If you only have two piping tips, these are the two to own!
- Instead of disposable piping bags, I recommend reusable piping bags. They're easy to wash, you won't unexpectedly run out and it's less waste going to the landfill.
- Girl Scout cookies aren't sold year round, but they do freeze really well. Buy a couple extra boxes so that you can make these Thin Mints cupcakes later in the year for a real treat!
FAQ
Can I make these Thin Mints cupcakes ahead of time?
Yes. And if you are making a lot of cupcakes (many times I've made hundreds in a day), I highly recommend baking the base cupcakes the day before and then frosting the cupcakes the day you will be eating them.
Yes, but you will need to use less of the milk as milks are thinner than heavy cream. In addition, they are not as rich so the taste and texture will be slightly different depending on the milk used.
Yes, you can leave out the Thin Mints cookies in the cupcake base. You can also crumble the cookies on top or leave them off completely for just a chocolate peppermint cupake
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Thin Mints Cupcakes
Equipment
- 1 Stand or hand mixer
Ingredients
Cupcake base
- 1 ¼ cups white sugar
- 10 tablespoons salted butter room temperature
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1½ cups cake flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1⅓ cups buttermilk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- ½ cup Thin Mint cookies (approx. 6 cookies) chopped
Frosting
- 8 tablespoons salted butter room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract*
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Decorations
- 24 Thin Mint cookies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line two 12-cup or one 24-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners.
Make the cupcakes
- Add the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt to a small bowl. Mix well and set aside.
- Add the butter and sugar to the mixing bowl. Mix on low until fully incorporated.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, to the mixing bowl. Mix on low until incorporated.
- Alternate adding half of the flour mix and half of the buttermilk. Mix on low until incorporated.
- Chop ½ cup of Thin Mint cookies (approximately 6). Add chopped cookies and peppermint extract to the mixing bowl and mix or stir just until the cookies are evenly distributed.
- Use a large 4 tablespoon cookie scoop to fill each muffin tin.
- Bake for 18-19 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. [If you are using two 12 cup muffin pans on different oven racks, rotate pans halfway through.]
- Cool in the muffin tins for 10 minutes and then move the cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Making the Frosting
- Add the butter to a mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar, peppermint extract, salt and 2 tablespoons of heaving whipping cream to the mixing bowl. Mix on medium high until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides several times, about 7-8 minutes. [Depending on the temperature of the butter and the humidity of the kitchen, you may need to add 1-2 more tablespoons of heavy cream if the frosting is too heavy/thick. Add the additional tablespoon(s) of heavy cream one at a time.]
- Add the frosting to the cupcakes by using an icing (offset) spatula, a regular knife or by piping it on.
- Lightly press one cookie into the frosting of each cupcake.
- Serve or place in an airtight container.
Notes
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