Snowy days are pretty typical in my area of the US. Make that really typical. Snowmen and snow angels and snowball fights are great and all, but sometimes it just gets too cold for that! On those days when all I want is warmth, I love baking. I don’t have to leave my house, and the oven makes the kitchen nice and warm.

On one of our recent freezing-cold-can’t-leave-the-house days, I decided that I was craving a peppermint hot chocolate. Sadly, Starbucks is not in my house (and thus unattainable), so it turned into a peppermint hot chocolate cupcake. It was definitely every bit as good as a peppermint hot chocolate.

This cupcake is a delicious soft chocolate cake, coated with a cocoa peppermint glaze, and then frosted with yummy vanilla icing and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies. Here’s the recipe for 12 cupcakes.

Chocolate Cake:

• Use any chocolate cake recipe that you like. I used the Hershey’s recipe, found here:  http://www.marthastewart.com/356078/hersheys-chocolate-cupcakes
• IMPORTANT: Make sure the cupcakes are totally cooled before any glazing or frosting, or else your frosting will turn into goo.

Peppermint Chocolate Glaze:

• 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp peppermint extract

Add all the ingredients except peppermint together and blend until completely smooth with a hand mixer on medium speed, about 2 minutes. Then add the peppermint extract and mix until fully blended. Adjust the powdered sugar and milk content until your desired consistency is reached. It will be fairly runny.

Vanilla Frosting:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp salted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Add all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix on low speed with a hand mixer until blended, and then high speed until the frosting is fairly thick and holds its shape completely.

Assembly:

• Bake cupcakes, and cool them on separate cooling sheet until fully cooled
• Put peppermint glaze on top- this is pretty runny, so I used a little storage bag that I cut the corner off of, and used that to funnel the glaze right into the middle of each cupcake. Then spread the glaze around using a spoon or knife. Let it harden- it should form a little shell and be fairly firm to the touch. If you want to speed up the process, you can put them in the fridge for a little while.
• Put on vanilla frosting. You can either use a pastry bag, or a knife to just glob the frosting on. The glaze will probably break and combine with the frosting- that’s ok! The white frosting and chocolate glaze look swirly and beautiful together.
• Sprinkle crushed peppermint candies on top

Here’s the final result:

These cupcakes are so decadent and rich, and totally irresistible. Sharing them with others was such a treat, because they were a huge hit. It is so satisfying when people love your food!