12 days of christmas baking - day 6: chocolate cream cheese cupcakes

for this 6th day of christmas baking i decided to bake those delicious chocolate cream cheese cupcakes i made a while back (click through for the recipe). these are really good! unfortunately, this time around i missed one step or didn't do it quite right. instead of filling the center of the cake with the cream cheese filling, i spoon it on top. i didn't realize how they'd look until after they were all baked. instead of getting these yummy filled looking cream cheese cupcakes, i got spotted dalmatian-like cupcakes. oops. but hey! they still taste delicious, with or without frosting added. i chose to frost these instead. to go with the whole christmas theme, i frosted half of them with peppermint frosting and the other with good old chocolate frosting. you really cannot beat chocolate on chocolate.

okay, that's all for now. enjoy the photos. should you be interested, check out the recipe from the link above for the cupcakes. oh, the peppermint frosting recipe is below. enjoy! :)







peppermint buttercream frosting

ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp peppermint extract
up to 4 tbsp heavy cream or milk
red food coloring (optional)*

directions:
beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed (or you can use a hand mixer). add in the powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. increase mixer speed to medium and add peppermint extract, and 2 tablespoon of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. if your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. if your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining tablespoons of milk, a little at a time until you've reached the right consistency. makes 2-1/2 cups. :)

*note: if you want to pipe the frosting with that decorative red strips as seen in the pictures above, just be sure to use a paint brush and paint some red lines in your piping bag. make sure they're spread out (3-4 lines) before filling your bag with the frosting. you'll see the swirls as you pipe out the frosting.