60 Things To Do In 2015: Make After Eight cupcakes

On Tuesday, I finally got around to making After Eight Cupcakes. I've wanted to make these for about two years now.

I feel I should add in now that I don't ever follow the method in a recipe - I only use a recipe for guidance on ingredients and temperatures.

Cupcake Ingredients

175g butter

175g caster sugar

150g self-raising flower

25g coco powder

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

6 tablespoons of milk (I used semi skimmed milk)

3 medium eggs

Butter Icing Ingredients 

2-3 tablespoons of milk (again, I used semi skimmed)

87g butter

165g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Green colouring 

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade/gas mark 6/fan 180 degrees centigrade/400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Start by pouring the sugar and butter in the same bowl and mixing until light and fluffy. Next, beat the eggs and mix in the peppermint extra. Slowly mix in the eggs and peppermint extra to your sugar and butter mix. Once this has been done, sieve the flour and coco powder into the rest of the mix.

Or

If you're like me, you could always just pour all of the ingredients into the same bowl and mix with an electric whisk until the mixture is light and creamy.

When the mixture is ready, equally spread it throughout the cupcake cases. This recipe should make up to 24 cakes. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes before leaving to cool.

Yes, I had to use a muffin tray...

While the cakes are cooling, you can begin to make the butter icing.

Place the butter in your bowl and sieve half of the icing sugar in and beat well. Next pour in the milk and peppermint extract and mix it in before sieving the remaining icing sugar in. Once the butter icing is light and fluffy, add in a few drops off food colouring and ensure the colour runs through all of the icing before applying it on your cupcakes.

Or 

If, again, you're like me, then feel free to place all of the ingredients in the bowl and frantically mix it all until you get the correct texture and apply the icing to your cupcakes. 

Last but by no means least, get out your After Eights, spilt them in half and place each piece on top of a cake!

These cupcakes went down extremely well with everyone at work. I'm sure they'll miss my cakes more than they'll miss me! Haha.

The next time I make these, I plan to crumble up some After Eights into small pieces and add them to the butter icing instead of adding peppermint extract.

Charlotte.