Choco-Mint Cupcakes!

I recently made these:

And EVERYONE loved them!  Even the hubs and he's not a "sweets person".

I cheated and used the mix because I had a really good coupon, but from scratch or box- they are awesome.  It's the peppermint and the green frosting that make them unavoidable ;)

All you have to do is pick up some:

Chocolate cake mix (or make from scratch )

Cream Cheese frosting (or make your own )

Green food coloring

Peppermint extract

Muffin cups

-and-

Candy to top!

(I used Candy canes, but you could also use Andes Mints and/or Chocolate syrup)

Simply follow the recipe/box directions and add 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract to the cake batter. (Don't go overboard because it gets more potent during baking.)  Then while cake is baking or while you are mixing said cake- have your husband (as seen below) mix in the food coloring and extract frosting mix.  Just add both in slowly till you get the color and mint level that you would like.  The recipe I w\saw called for 1/2 tsp, but we ended up using 2 tbs and it wasn't overpowering.  

My sexy handy-dandy helper:

These are great for the Holiday Season and the Betty Crocker mix comes out very light and moist.  I kinda wanna make them in mini-cupcakes, but I feel like I would eat 10 mini ones instead of just one regular cupcake...probably not the best idea, but they would be oh-so-cute!

I couldn't find the original recipe, but here is the pic that inspired it all: