York Mint Snowflake Cupcakes
White candy melt snowflakes turn York peppermint patties into the perfect Christmas cupcake toppers!
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Calories: 310kcal
Equipment
- 2 Cupcake tins (24 cups total)
- Cupcake corer (optional; I often just use a plastic knife)
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour (350g)
- 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar (450g)
- 1 ¼ cup cocoa powder (100g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
- 4 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk (350mL)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package, softened)
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
- 6-7 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon peppermint extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
Filling
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (add to reserved frosting; see instructions)
- ½ cup crushed peppermint candy or crushed candy canes (add to reserved frosting; see instructions)
Decorations
- 24 York Peppermint Patties
- ½ bag White candy melts (I used Wilton's bright white candy melts)
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C) or 325 F (160C) for a convection oven. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in bits of softened butter until no lumps of butter are visible and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until well combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and beat on medium for another 20 seconds.
- Fill each paper 2/3 full (using a large cookie scoop to transfer the batter makes this a quick and easy process). You may find that you have a little batter left over – I don’t recommend over-filling the cupcake tins or they may overflow.
- Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
- This is an excellent time to make your frosting and/or pipe your snowflake decorations!
Frosting & Filling
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add peppermint extract and salt if needed and beat until well combined.
- Remove about ¾ c of frosting and stir an additional 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract and crushed peppermint candy in to make peppermint cupcake filling.
Decorating
- To decorate your peppermint patties, melt down about half a bag of White candy melts and transfer them to a piping bag fitted with a small tip. Pipe three lines to make the six points of the snowflake, and then add angled lines to finish the snowflake design. (See the YouTube video below; its about 30 seconds long).
- Once the cupcakes have cooled, you're ready to core and fill them -you can buy a cupcake corer, but you can also just do what I do and cut the centers out with a plastic knife. ;) Pipe your peppermint filling into your cored cupcakes.
- Transfer frosting to a large piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe frosting in large swirls onto your cupcakes (or however you feel like icing them).
- Decorate the top of each frosting swirl with a decorated York mint! Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 310kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 2.4g | Fat: 18.8g