The Girl Scout Cupcake

It's time again for Quirky Cupcake's: Cupcake Hero. This month the challenge is MINT and as her guest judge she invited Natalie of Bake and Destroy to put her palate to the test. At first I got really excited. Laurie's post was so full of sugary goodness. I started brainstorming right away. Then I thought of the perfect cupcake. Or at least I thought it was. I was making some High Hat Cupcakes for a friend in what I called the Trailer Trash Cupcake War (it's a long story and I won, at least I think I did) and I think High Hats are probably the best cupcake ever and why not add mint! Perfect.

I made up a batch of HH's and pulled a few aside for the Mint High Hat. I decided to flavor and color the marshmallow filling but mint is strong and so maybe just half should be flavored and colored. I took a cup of the marshmallow filling and used pink food gel coloring. It started to look like Pepto. Not so nice but maybe it will taste good. I added some peppermint oil. It held together. I tasted it. It tasted like Pepto! Gross. I then decided to finish the experiment because maybe adding the cake and chocolate coating would affect the overall taste. Nope. I give you the Pepto Cupcake. Yum.

It looks pretty, but don't be fooled!

But this post is titled "The Girl Scout Cupcake." I was so unsatisfied that I tried again. This time I threw out the idea of using the High Hat. The High Hat is perfect the way it is and didn't like being fooled around with.

So after thinking about what mint things I enjoy I thought of the Thin Mint. That small little cookie that's so addictive. I researched different recipes and threw together, The Girl Scout Cupcake.



The filling is so creamy and smooth and just the right amount of peppermint flavor. It's clean and not too overpowering. The cake is a good dark chocolate. Simple and trustworthy. And the chocolate ganache frosting, classic. I used some of the peppermint filling, colored it green and piped on the top.


I was so surprised by how delicious this tasted. After eating one I thought about how good it was all day. My mom loved them and even my babysitter, who never eats sweets, ate an entire cupcake. I call that a success.