Roar.
My husband, the monster:
Did you know I was once married to Frankenstein? It’s true! Long before Bella Swan made it fashionable to marry a ghoul, Frankie and I had a one-night stand. I dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein for Halloween and created a stuffed monster “husband” to carry around all night.
In case you’re curious, here’s a photo of us.
Although we didn’t stay married long (irreconcilable differences), I think Frankenstein would approve of the following mint-chocolate cupcake recipe. Whole-grain, and lower in fat and sugar, these are much healthier than your average cupcakes. And yet, they taste just as delicious.
As I said in yesterday’s post, these cupcakes were made for a good friend’s kindergarten class. I so wanted to throw some spinach in them, to see how they’d turn out. But I didn’t have enough time to make a second batch if the experiment failed.
If anyone is feeling adventurous, please do try adding spinach… and let me know how it goes!!
Monster Mint-Chocolate Cupcakes
(Makes 12 cupcakes)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (regular or dutch)
- 1 cup flour (I used white-whole-wheat. You can use all-purpose, spelt, or even ww pastry.)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sugar or evaporated cane juice
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp pure peppermint extract (or 1/2 tsp, if you only want a very-slight mint taste)
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt of choice (such as SoDelicious)
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 3 tbsp oil (coconut or veg or canola oil)
- optional: add a few handfuls chocolate chips to the batter!
- 1/2 cup milk of choice
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients, then add wet. Don’t overmix. Pour into cupcake liners or tins, and bake for 18-20 minutes. (Mine took 19 minutes.) Nutrition Facts per cupcake: Each cupcake will have around 130 calories and three grams of fat, depending on what yogurt you use.
Cupcakes in the photos are topped with this recipe: Mint Chocolate Chip Frosting.
For a Mint-Chocolate Parfait:
Try crumbling this over Mint-Chocolate-Chip Ice Milk.
Or skip the parfait idea and just cover these babies in devilishly-delicious green frosting. With chocolate chips. Don’t forget the chocolate chips.
Question of the Day:
Do you remember any of your childhood Halloween costumes?
Some of mine: a Martian beauty queen, devil in a blue dress, purple-people-eater, monster chef, dust bunny (French maid with bunny ears), sand witch (sandwich), and “Indecisive” (where I wore a little bit of everything I could find. That one was really fun). I always hope that one of my friends will throw a party, so I have an excuse to still dress up even though I’m obviously way too old for trick-or-treating. I still have no idea what I’m going to wear to this year’s Halloween party.
Haha I LOVE that photo of you!! And these cupcakes are AMAZING! Love the Halloween decoration! 😀
I dressed up as Hermione every single year as a kid. My Harry Potter obsession was all-consuming 😛
I love mint chocolate chip! Yum!
I always dressed up as a witch’s cat! I wore black, painted my face and wore ears and a tail 🙂
These cupcakes look delicious. I hope they were a hit with the kiddos. Be careful with food dyes and kids though–they have been shown to be nuerologically damaging. 🙁
I only used like five tiny drops for the whole recipe. To be honest, though, I haven’t really done any research or heard much about it. Maybe I should’ve tried spinach! 🙂 Or spirulina?
My favorite costume was when I was 26, and not a little kid, but I was “The Indian in the Cupboard.” Runners up: 4 of us as Ninja turtles, 6 of us as Clue characters, 6 of us as Corona bottles. I love costumes so much more than real clothes!
Don’t beat yourself up about yesterday- you totally meant well and I think most of us know that 🙂
Every year I think I wanted to be the girliest thing possible. Ballerinas and Princesses and such. Much glitter was involved.
These sound fantastic!
My favorite costume was Jasmin from Aladdin (I wore it 2 years in a row). Those cupcakes look delicious!!
I loved dressing up as a kid! My fave costume was a ballerina cat, it was awesome 😀
I remember all of mine! My mom made them every year so they were extra special. I’d be excited for a whole month before!
These look SO good! Especially the frosting and chocolate drizzle. I die!
Yum—these look so good! I love the combination of mint and chocolate, so good.
I definitely remember some of my Halloween costumes as a child! I was a Hawaiian girl, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and an American Girl doll!
How fun and festive, and i’m sure delicious! I was such a typical girl during halloween as a kiddo — rainbow bright, a princess, an angel…I got more creative as a grown up, for sure!
I don’t really remember my own costumes. Only from pictures do I remember that I’ve been a witch and I’ve been a cheerleader. But the coolest costume was the year my dad made my brother a robot out of a cardboard box, tin foil, and all sorts of cool buttons. I wish I had a picture to share because it turned out sooo well! Gotta love homemade 🙂
You read my mind! It’s snowy and cold here and I really wanted a good dessert without having to go out and I have everything for this, perfect!
Hopefully they’ll taste as good for me!
Update:
I halved the recipe and made mini ones (11 with the half recipe) – my DH really liked them but refused to hear the ingredients 😉
I thought they were a little salty with the baking powder, baking soda, AND salt – I might cut back on some of that, although the amounts were so small I might have overused something…
I didn’t get the chance to try pb topping but that would be next on my list – the cream cheese frosting I tried was a big fail 🙁
Hey Megan! How long did you bake the mini-muffins for? I just bought a mini-muffin pan and am so excited to try it! Thanks.
I was such a nerd when I was a kid. One year I was Scarlett O’hara, and not because I liked the film or knew anything about the movie but because I just wanted to wear a big, ruffly dress.
Yum…these look amazing!