Grasshopper Cupcakes

The necessities of life right now:  Eating, sleeping (not as much as I'd like!), baseball, & FUNDRAISING!

(If you missed my post before, we're sending 2 teams from my kids' school (including 2 of my boys) to Globals for Destination Imagination (read about it HERE))

I'm feeling a little sleep-deprived, stressed, overwhelmed, and I think I might go crazy before this is all over! 

So, like any sane person would do...when asked to make about 300 cupcakes for Prom, I said yes.  Anything to help my boys make it to Tennessee!! 

That means I will be making another batch of these babies!

(you'd think I'd be getting sick of cupcakes, but they are just so fun to make...and I've recruited the help of Kyla...she's good at the cupcake part, but she's still working on getting the piping of the frosting down, although she is getting better.)

I could crawl into my closet with this frosting & be happy there for quite some time!:)

Grasshopper Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake

PRINT RECIPE

For the cupcakes:

1 box devil's food cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

Ganache:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Grasshopper Buttercream:

1 sleeve grasshopper cookies

1/2 cup butter

8 oz. cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners. 

Mix the cake mix with the rest of the cake ingredients until nice and smooth.  Fill liners 3/4 way full with batter.  Use large cookie scoop to make this easier. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Ganache, place chocolate chips in a glass bowl.  Heat the cream in the microwave until it starts to bubble, about 1-2 minutes.  Pour cream over the chocolate chips and stir until smooth.  Stir in the peppermint extract.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache and let cool until set.

For the frosting, crush the cookies using a blender (which is how I do it, but however you want to do it is fine:)); set aside.  Beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and 2 cups of the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk and the cookie crumbs, and mix until incorporated.  Continue adding powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.

Pipe frosting over set ganache & top with 1/4 of a grasshopper cookie.

Looks good enough to eat!:)