There's Something In the Air

  I absolutely love Christmas-time and the Holiday Season. I love the smells that fill my home as I bake, and I love making candy around the holidays. 

  I recently was asked to bring a dessert to a gathering. I was torn between taking cookies and cupcakes (I have my favorite holiday cookie recipes, which I'll soon be sharing). I have a favorite cookie recipe that involves a chewy chocolate cookie rolled in crushed peppermint. I decided to morph that with a recipe I saw on "Baker's Royale" for Toffee Crunch Cupcakes; the result was Peppermint Crunch Cupcakes.

I actually baked these in mini muffin pans.

-First, bake up a batch of Devil's Food Cupcakes. 

-Then, follow the instructions in the Toffee Crunch Cupcake recipe for making ganache.

-Follow the instructions in the Toffee Crunch Cupcake recipe for making Caramel Frosting, but omit the caramel sauce. In place of the caramel sauce add 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract.

-Crush peppermints to equal about 1 cup.

-Follow the remainder of the instructions in the Toffee Crunch Cupcake recipe for assembling the cupcakes.

Note: The Devil's Food Cake recipe makes almost four dozen cupcakes. The frosting and ganache recipes will cover about two dozen cupcakes. 

  I took two dozen Peppermint Crunch Cupcakes to our event and frosted the other two dozen with my Buttercream Frosting recipe (the recipe is listed beneath the recipe for "Granny Cookies"), to which I added about an 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract. I then topped these cupcakes with crushed peppermints. These cupcakes were taken to a special event for our niece who just turned eight years old. I wanted something simple for her, with just a slight touch of Christmas.