Celebrate this holiday season with these Chocolate Mint Frango Cupcakes made with the famous Frango mint chocolates!
During the holiday season, my parents would take me and my brother and sister to Frederick and Nelson to get our picture taken with Santa. While we were there, Mom and Dad would pick up a couple boxes of Frango chocolates, the mint ones. If we were good with Santa, we’d get to have a few of these super yummy chocolates on the drive home. Of course, we were always good and always got to get a chocolate treat!
Now, Frederick and Nelson has long closed and when I’m in Seattle, I take my kids to Nordstrom to see Santa. BUT… the chocolates can be found at Macy’s! My dad surprised me with two boxes of chocolates in a care package yesterday! I was so excited to see them!
These chocolates are bite size… perfect for popping one in your mouth when you want a hit of smooth, creamy mint chocolate goodness. Seriously, they are one of my favorites. I wondered though, could I melt down these chocolates and put them in a cupcake?
So this morning, I did just that! I took one of my most favorite recipes for chocolate cake and adapted it to include the Frango Mint Chocolates! YUM! Since I’ve done a chocolate mint cupcake before that was topped with a green mint buttercream, I wanted to do something different with these and top them with a chocolate frosting that had more of the Frangos melted and added to the butter and sugar. Soooooo good.
I’m sure if you can’t find any of these chocolates, you could just a good bar of your favorite mint chocolate. I’m pretty certain Lindt has a 4oz bar that would be perfect!
See those pretty green liners I’m using? I was given those by Shannon Harvey, owner of Sweets & Treats Boutique to test out! Sweets & Treats makes greaseproof liners that are supposed to stand up to the discoloration that often happens when baking cupcakes, especially chocolate and other dark colored cake. Shannon sent me 4 sleeves of liners in all kinds of patterns and colors. For these cupcakes, I chose the solid green liners to bring out the mint aspect of the cupcake. Since I was baking chocolate cupcakes, I wasn’t too sure how much color these liners would hold… but, I was happily surprised! They held their color really well and stuck to the cupcake nicely! Especially with this dark cake, I was happy that I could still see a lot of green in these liners! I would definitely use them again! Thanks Shannon for sending them to me!
Enjoy!
Chocolate Mint “Frango” Cupcakes
Rich chocolate mint cupcake made with Mint Chocolate Frangos!
Ingredients
Chocolate Mint "Frango" Cupcakes
- 4oz Frango Mint Chocolates (about 14 pieces), roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup brewed coffee
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp mint extract
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate Mint Buttercream
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1/3 heaping cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1 tsp mint extract
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 12-15 Frango Mint Chocolates
- chocolate jimmies
- green sugar crystals
Instructions
Chocolate Mint "Frango" Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, and the vanilla & mint extracts.
- Using a double boiler, melt together the Frango chopped chocolates and butter.
- Once the chocolate is smooth, whisk in the cocoa powder and brewed coffee completely incorporated.
- Slowly, add a few tablespoons of the hot chocolate mixture to the sour cream/egg and whisk until combined. This is going to temper the egg so it doesn't cook. Add the remaining chocolate and whisk until smooth.
- Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the chocolate. Mix with the whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour into cupcake liners 3/4 full.
- Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Mint Buttercream
- Cream together the butter and shortening.
- Add the cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.
- Add the extracts & salt and mix to combine. The mixture will be clumpy at this point.
- Add enough cream until you reach the consistency of frosting you desire.
- Beat on high for 4-5 minutes or until the frosting lightens in color and becomes light and fluffy.
- Using a star tip, frost each cupcake. Top with chocolate jimmies, green sugar crystals and a Chocolate Mint Frango.
Logan
Sunday 22nd of January 2017
Sounds fantastic - love Frango mints. A couple of questions: 1) You have butter as an ingredient for the buttercream frosting, but the instructions never mention when/how to use it. 2) You mention in your blog about using melted Frango mints in the frosting but no reference to using them in the instructions. Thanks for your guidance.
Spencer
Wednesday 9th of January 2013
How good do they look? I reckon I could eat about 100 of them.
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Friday 4th of January 2013
Cupcakes are my favorite, just I never tried with mint. When try I'll update here my opinion.