Chocolate Oreo Andes Mint Cupcakes!

Today I walked into Cronie's (where I bake/sell my cupcakes) and I *still* smelled mint from my baking escapade the night before!

That's because I made Chocolate Oreo Andes Mint Cupcakes in the wee hours of the night while everyone else was sleeping!  (I am not sorry if the aroma of my baking in downtown Waupaca woke you up and turned you into a cupcake zombie)!

The chocolate cupcakes are filled with a chocolate ganache. The frosting looks and tastes like mint chocolate chip ice cream. You could probably just eat it by itself with a spoon.

This cupcake was another Amanda Cupcake mad scientist experiment.

I was just going to make plain old peppermint frosting.

But if you know me, I always have to add excess to my cupcakes.

So I actually left the kitchen to run to the store and buy some Oreos.

I crumbled them up and mixed them into my mint frosting!

I knew my little St. Patrick's Day celebratory cupcake was a success when I ate the cupcake, and my mouth tingled with sweet peppermint joy.

While you were all sleeping, I chopped up Andes mints and sprinkled them like little treasures across the top of each cupcake.

This is the "money" shot.

Chocolate Money!

A treasure that you can unwrap before..or after you eat your cupcake!  Kind of like finding extra money on the ground. It's your lucky day ♥.

I used a whole Andes mint as a spoon to eat the frosting.♥You can do this too.

Recipe for my Oreo Mint Frosting:

(You don't need to add mint to any other part of the chocolate cupcake. The frosting defines the "mint" in the cupcake)!

You will need:

14 oz Marshmallow Creme

1 lb unsalted butter

10 Oreo Cookies (ground up finely in a blender, and set aside in a small bowl).

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp peppermint oil or peppermint extract (you can taste test and always add more if your frosting isn't minty enough for your liking. This is sort of your own judgment call)!

2-3 Cups Powdered Sugar

Green Food Coloring (I like the Leaf Green Gel Paste from Americolor, but you only need a drop to make the frosting look light & minty)!

For Toppings: Andes Mints, Chocolate Coins, Hologram Gold Disco Dust

For Frosting Swirl:  I used a large open star tip to decorate (#9 from Ateco)

How the magic is made:

1.  I hope you have a stand mixer.  The fluffy frosting is so much fluffier when you make this frosting with a stand mixer!

2.  Scoop your Marshmallow Creme out into your mixing bowl.  Using the whisk attachment, fluff up the marshmallow creme on a medium speed. Meanwhile, cut up your butter into little squares and gradually add to Marshmallow Creme Mixture.

3.  You might think you're done at this point because the frosting already looks like whipped heaven.  Just wait.

4.  You need to add your peppermint oil, dash of salt, and vanilla to the mix. Blend well. With Love.

5.  Now gradually add your powdered sugar. You can add as little or as much powdered sugar as you'd like to, just depending on how thick of a texture you want your frosting to be.  I added around 2 1/2 cups because I wanted my frosting to have a "whipped" consistency.

6.  The last few steps that add the "excess" to your mint frosting are important ones!

7.  Mix the green gel paste color in to your frosting.  Start with one small drop at first, you can always add more depending on the depth of green you want your frosting to be. I like mine to be a light minty green so you can see all the little black oreo dots that we are going to add next.

8.  Add your ground up oreos to the mix.  I don't even use my mixer attachment to blend these into the frosting. I just use a spatula until they are blended nicely, but not so much that the oreos drown into the frosting.

It's more fun when you can see little oreo dots in the green frosting!

Now you are ready to decorate your cupcakes with little sparkles of chocolate minty treasures, coins and swirls that you'd only dream of finding at the end of a rainbow!