My husband's office has a white elephant gift exchange for their holiday party every year. This year he convinced me to make some festive cupcakes (along with some extra ginger snaps and sugar cookies we had lying around) as his gift. Of course he brought all of the cupcakes (not just the ones for the gift) in to munch on during their pre-party meeting. Which meant no left overs for me. Sad day. Guess I'll have to make more... Anyway, the flavors of choice were Peppermint Mocha and Spiked Egg Nog. Here they are.
I was fully expecting the Peppermint Mocha to be my favorite. I have become a big fan of the Starbucks version this year. For the mocha part, this cupcake has espresso powder and coffee incorporated into the chocolate batter. As for the peppermint, there is pure peppermint extract in the whipped cream cheese frosting and crushed peppermint sticks in the batter and garnished on top for an added crunch. Mmmm...and they were a hit!
Surprisingly though, I rather enjoyed the Egg Nog cupcake. For this reicpe I took the vanilla recipe I've been using lately added a sprinkle of nutmeg and replaced 3/4 of the milk with egg nog. (Which was store bought, not home made. Can you even make home made egg nog??? I don't know.) There is a tiny bit of spiced rum in the batter as well as just a touch in the whipped cream cheese frosting, but barely enough to taste because I didn't want it to be over powering. Finally it is garnished with ground cinnamon. So pretty!
While making these I couldn't help but remember my first drink of spiked egg nog, quite by accident, when I was about 13. Blech! I think it had brandy in it, not rum, and a lot of it. BUT, this egg nog cupcake was good. Really. Really. Good. I may or may not have hoarded "a couple three" (as they say in MN) that didn't fit in the cupcake containers. ;)
Experimenting with these recipes was fun and very successful. You should try it. And have yourself a sweet and satisfying holiday season!
