AFTER DINNER MINT CUPCAKES

Mama taught me not to play with my food, but even she concedes that after-dinner mints are far too much fun for eating alone. For those of you who don't leave every dinner party with chocolate in your eyebrows, where have you been and what have you been doing with your after-dinner mints?

Should you tire of steering these down your temples, my mint cupcakes are the perfect after-dinner indulgence. They're kind of great for breakfast too, but let's keep that one between ourselves for now.

THE INGREDIENTS

1 quantity of vanilla cupcake batter (I always use Hummingbird's)

100g after-dinner mints, plus extra to decorate

250g icing sugar

50g unsalted butter

50ml mlk

2 tsp peppermint extract 

THE RECIPE

For the cupcakes, follow your normal vanilla cupcake recipe, to the point where your batter is mixed, and ready to be spooned into cases. (Psssft, if you don't have a recipe, this one is great.) Chop up your mints into chip sized pieces, and mix through the batter. Spoon into cases, and bake as normal. Cupcakes normally take 15-20 minutes at 180C, but they are easy to overbake. My trick for telling that they're done is to listen to them (no really) - they're baked when they've just stopped fizzing. Cool on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, whisk up the icing sugar, butter, milk and peppermint extract. Add the milk a spoonful at a time, as you may not need all of it. Beat on a high speed for at least five minutes - I leave mine for ten if there's time. You want the frosting to be pure white, light as a feather and full of big pockets of air. Spoon this into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, and swirl on top of your cooled cupcakes. 

Finally, top with a mint and let the waiting crowds loose on them.