Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

My husband has been wanting these cupcakes for a while now. He finally said I needed to make them so the mint Oreo fudge cremes would stop calling to him. He even said he'd make the cake part if I did the rest. I resisted making these because I knew if I made them I wouldn't be able to stop eating them. Mint and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations. In the end I only ended up eating a half of one but I did snack on all the ingredients before the cupcakes were even done, especially the chocolates and cookies.

I wanted to use Andie's Mints but I couldn't find them at WINCO. I was disappointed and ended up buying Palmer's mint chocolates, which turned out to be yummy. On another trip I did find the Andie's Mints.

I wanted to doctor up the chocolate cake mix that I used so I added 1/2 cup sour cream, 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon mint and 1 cup of crushed cookies.

I put half the cookies in a Ziploc bag and then crunched them up with my hands.

They were easy to crunch up.

They looked so great after they were done baking.

After they were done I cut out the middle with the steak knife.

Then I took the end off the, I don't know what to call it, cone? Leaving just the top. You don't really need to do it the way I did, you could pipe it in if you want but I enjoy a lot of cream in the middle.

The filling was made with 3/4 cup shortening, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup crunched up cookies, 1/4 cup of the chocolates (I didn't break them up before, just put them in there whole), 8 tablespoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon mint. I blended them together with a mixer. This breaks up the chocolates. I then filled the cupcakes.

Then I put the top on the cupcake covering the cream center.

Once the cupcakes were topped I melted the mint chocolates and smothered the cupcakes with the melted chocolate, I may have smothered my mouth with the melted chocolate as well.

The frosting was made like a buttercream. I used 1/2 cups shortening, 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons mint, 6 tablespoons milk, 4 drops of green and 1 drop of yellow food coloring. I was sad that this didn't cover all the cupcakes. I had some filling left over and had to use that to top some of them. I would up the shortening to 1 cup and the powdered sugar to 4 1/2, that should make enough to cover them. You can use more or less mint depending on how intense you want the flavor to be.

I topped the cupcakes off with the rest of the cookies cut in half and then I have some fresh mint that I plucked the leaves from for an extra garnish.

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 Devil's food cake mix
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mint
1 cup crushed mint cookies

Filling:
3/4 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup crushed cookies
1/4 cup chocolate mints
8 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon mint

Frosting:
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons mint
6 tablespoons milk
4 drops of green food coloring
1 drop of yellow food coloring