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A recipe for four perfect and adorable small-batch chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream from my new cookbook, Baking for Two.

This will be the last Baking Mischief post before Thanksgiving, so to all my American brothers and sisters, happy Thanksgiving. I wish you safe, speedy travel, perfectly cooked turkeys, and patience and empathy to deal with the trying conversations I’m sure are going to come up over dinner.

We’ll get through this.

If you’ve been following along with the blog for a little while, you’ll know that my first cookbook, Baking for Two is out this month. The e-book was released on the 10th, and the day before that release, I shared my Small-batch Bacon Scones With Maple Glaze recipe from the book.

Physical copies of Baking for Two are shipping tomorrow, so today I’m sharing another preview recipe!

You know I love making cupcakes, and I think you like them too, because my S’mores Cupcakes , Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes , and BB-8 Cupcakes are some of the most popular recipes on the site.

So it’s no surprise that one of my favorite chapters in Baking for Two (to write and to eat from) is my Cakes and Cupcakes chapter. There are 12 small-batch recipes in there ranging from the adorably small and tall Strawberry Buttercream Layer Cake to the decadent and delicious Death by Chocolate Sheet Cake.

I included a few seasonal recipes in most of the chapters, and since we are fast approaching Christmas, now is a perfect time to share my Chocolate Cupcakes with Candy Cane Buttercream , which makes just four perfect and adorable cupcakes.

Obviously, I’m a big fan of all the recipes in my book, but these were particular favorites among my taste testers. The cupcakes are moist and rich, and the buttercream has a wonderful peppermint bite to it, perfect for the holidays. The candy cane swirl can be done without any special equipment, you just need three plastic bags for billowy swirls, or three piping bags and a large star tip for a more sculpted look like the ones in the photos.

Chocolate Cupcakes With Peppermint Buttercream Tips

• Peppermint extract is what gives these cupcakes their peppermint flavor. It can be found near the vanilla in the baking aisle at most grocery stores or ordered from Amazon *. If you don’t like the flavor or don’t have any, you can replace it with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• You can use liquid or gel food coloring, but you’ll get the most vivid red with gel food coloring *. If using water-based, be careful not to add too much or you may be able to taste the red dye.
• These cupcakes use a small amount of coffee in the batter. It helps to enhance to chocolate flavor and does not give the cupcakes a coffee flavor, but if you don’t like coffee, you can replace it with the same amount of hot water.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) unsalted butter
• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 21 g) chopped semi-sweet chocolate
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 30 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 11 g) cocoa powder sifted
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 large egg yolk room temperature
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 tablespoons milk
• ▢ 2 tablespoons hot coffee

Peppermint Buttercream

• ▢ 4 tablespoons ( 2 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
• ▢ Red food coloring
• ▢ Milk or cream optional

Instructions

Chocolate Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350°Line your cupcake pan with 4 cupcake liners.
• In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the butter until it’s mostly melted. Add the semi-sweet chocolate and vegetable oil and microwave in 15-second bursts, stirring after each, until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir and set aside to cool.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Whisk in the cooled chocolate (if it is not cooled it will scramble the egg), until well combined.
• Stir in the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
• Whisk in the milk and coffee until smooth. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, filling just under three-fourths full. If you have leftover batter, discard it.
• Bake for 16 to 19 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake center comes out clean.
• Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Cool completely, for about 15 minutes, before making the buttercream.

Peppermint Buttercream

• Whisk together softened butter, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract. If needed, whisk in 1 teaspoon of cream or milk at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.
• Divide the frosting in half and add red food coloring to half of the frosting, mixing until color is uniform.
• Drape 2 piping bags or disposable plastic bags open over 2 cups and fill one bag with white frosting and one with red.
• If using piping bags: Fit the third piping bag with the piping tip. Squeeze the frosting-filled bags together and slip them into the third bag. Remove them, snip the tips off both bags of frosting, and place them back into the third bag, lining them up so they sit evenly at the bottom.
• If using plastic bags:Place both frosting-filled plastic bags into a third and position them so the bags sit together in one corner. Squeeze the frosting down so it is gathered down at the point of the bags and snip the edges off all three at once.
• Starting on the outside edge of the cooled cupcakes, pipe swirls of frosting onto each and enjoy!

Nutritional Information

Creamed Turkey (or creamed chicken) is a simple weeknight dinner that can be made with leftover turkey or chicken. It’s pure comfort food and completely delicious.

So, true story: up until about a week and a half ago, I was dead certain that today was the day after Thanksgiving. At the end of September, I wrote Thanksgiving into my editorial calendar as the 17th (because as everyone knows, Thanksgiving is always the 3rd Thursday of November) and just went on living my life, planning posts, doing whatever it is I do.

This was obviously not even a little correct, as I learned while trying to coordinate Thanksgiving plans with family, so what I’m basically saying is this recipe was supposed to come out the day after Thanksgiving, not a week before it. My stellar calendar and editorial planning skills strike again…

Properly timed or not, today’s recipe is pretty special to me because it’s not just one of my personal childhood favorites, it’s the childhood favorite of basically every other child who had the good fortune to attend my elementary school, it’s Creamed Turkey.

They served this in the cafeteria about once a month while I was there, and I really cannot overstate how big of a deal this lunch was. On Creamed Turkey Day (capitalized), almost nobody brought their lunches from home and teachers gave up their lunch hour to let us eat in the classroom, mostly because they were already staying on school grounds to eat creamed turkey too.

I’ve been told that it’s still served at the school but is no longer made from scratch in the kitchens, so who knows if current generations are still developing a taste for it with the same fanatical zeal, but I for one will always have a place in my heart (and on my plate) for creamed turkey.

So obviously I had to recreate it on the blog. And fortunately, I still have an in at the school and was able to get the basic recipe breakdown from one of the school’s longtime lunch ladies.

Turns out creamed turkey is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper easy to make. It’s basically cubed, cooked poultry + a roux + a little salt, pepper, and garlic. If you have leftover chicken or, I don’t know, turkey from any holidays we might have coming up, you can make this in about 8 minutes.

We were always served Creamed Turkey over mashed potatoes (if you don’t have a mashed potato recipe you love, give my No-recipe Homemade Mashed Potatoes a try). The internet tells me you can also serve creamed turkey over toast, which sure. If that sounds good to you, you do that. 😉

Creamed Turkey is really just pure comfort food, warm and filling. It’s rich, creamy, and just makes you feel good from the inside out, the way a bowl of chicken soup does on a cold day. Serve with a side of Butter and Garlic Green Beans or Panko Parmesan Broccoli , and your inner child will love it.

More Easy Comfort Food

• Beef Stroganoff
• Tomato Soup for Two
• Ham and Potato Soup
• Easy Chicken Cacciatore

Recipe Notes

• If you don’t have any cooked turkey or chicken on hand, go try out my recipe How to Cook Chicken Breasts to Use in Recipes , and make some! 😉

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) butter
• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 15 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup milk any percentage
• ▢ 1/4 cup chicken broth
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ Salt and white pepper to taste
• ▢ 2 cups ( 8 oz) cubed, cooked chicken or turkey (warm)

Serve Over

• ▢ Mashed potatoes or toast

Instructions

• In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook for about 30 seconds until golden.
• Whisk in milk and broth. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble and thickens to the consistency of thick gravy, 3 to 6 minutes.
• Remove from heat and whisk in garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir in chicken and allow to sit over very low heat until chicken is warmed through, about 5 minutes.
• Serve over mashed potatoes or toast.

This Small-batch Giant Christmas Cookies recipe makes six perfect and sprinkle-covered sugar cookies.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! How were your Thanksgivings and Black Fridays? Was your turkey excellent? Did you buy anything fun?

I spent Thanksgiving with the people in this world I’m most thankful for and skipped shopping on Friday to go see Moana with the family, so mine were both A++.

And now that Thanksgiving is over, that means we are squarely in Christmas territory! I already started posting Christmas recipes last week with my Small-batch Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream , but this week we are really kicking things off with some small-batch Christmas cookies!

This week and next, I’ll be posting some small-batch Christmas cookies for those of us who aren’t baking for a crowd this holiday season. Each of these recipes makes just half a dozen, which is just perfect for you and Santa. 🙂

First up Small-batch Giant Christmas Cookies, and oh man, my taste testers went crazy over these (and I’m pretty fond of them too).

The base ingredients are nearly identical to my Chai Sugar Cookies With Eggnog Glaze , but by changing the way they are mixed, you get a completely different cookie.

For this recipe, all the wet ingredients and the sugar get creamed so they are nice and smooth before you add in the flour and other dry ingredients. This means that the cookie comes out of the oven with a craggy texture and slightly crunchy exterior that just melts in your mouth when you bite into it.

Add the extra crunch of sugary sprinkles, and these are the ultimate Christmas sugar cookie experience!

More Cozy Recipes

• Easy Hot Chocolate
• White Hot Chocolate
• Dutch Apple Pie
• Small-batch Gingerbread Cookies

Small-batch Giant Christmas Cookies Notes

• Chilling time is not optional. If you don’t chill your dough, you will have cookie puddles, not cookies!
• Make sure to space the cookies out as far as you can. These are big cookies, and they spread when baked.

Ingredients

• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 2 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 30 g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 large egg yolk
• ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) all-purpose flour measured by weight or using the spoon and sweep method*
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ Sprinkles for rolling

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, cream butter, oil, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk until completely incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, and salt and mix until just combined. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, up to 24, until dough is firm enough to handle.
• Preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
• Divide dough into 6 evenly sized balls. Roll in sprinkles and place on prepared baking sheet spaced evenly apart. Gently press dough so it is slightly flattened, about 3/4 inch. Bake for 11 to 14 minutes until cookies look set. Cool completely on baking sheet.

Notes

Giant Christmas Cookies Nutritional Information

Small-batch Chocolate Cupcakes With Peppermint Buttercream

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons ( 21 g) chopped semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup ( 30 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons ( 11 g) cocoa powder sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg yolk room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons hot coffee

Peppermint Buttercream

• 4 tablespoons ( 2 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
• Red food coloring
• Milk or cream optional

Instructions

Chocolate Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350°Line your cupcake pan with 4 cupcake liners.
• In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the butter until it’s mostly melted. Add the semi-sweet chocolate and vegetable oil and microwave in 15-second bursts, stirring after each, until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir and set aside to cool.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Whisk in the cooled chocolate (if it is not cooled it will scramble the egg), until well combined.
• Stir in the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
• Whisk in the milk and coffee until smooth. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, filling just under three-fourths full. If you have leftover batter, discard it.
• Bake for 16 to 19 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake center comes out clean.
• Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Cool completely, for about 15 minutes, before making the buttercream.

Peppermint Buttercream

• Whisk together softened butter, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract. If needed, whisk in 1 teaspoon of cream or milk at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.
• Divide the frosting in half and add red food coloring to half of the frosting, mixing until color is uniform.
• Drape 2 piping bags or disposable plastic bags open over 2 cups and fill one bag with white frosting and one with red.
• If using piping bags: Fit the third piping bag with the piping tip. Squeeze the frosting-filled bags together and slip them into the third bag. Remove them, snip the tips off both bags of frosting, and place them back into the third bag, lining them up so they sit evenly at the bottom.
• If using plastic bags:Place both frosting-filled plastic bags into a third and position them so the bags sit together in one corner. Squeeze the frosting down so it is gathered down at the point of the bags and snip the edges off all three at once.
• Starting on the outside edge of the cooled cupcakes, pipe swirls of frosting onto each and enjoy!

Nutrition