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.
















Hi Katie! Thanks once again for the awesome recipe. I’ll try it with the spinach and keep you posted.
For the frosting, you gave a link that takes us to “Banana Butter”, but then you mention you have used Cashew Butter. I am confused. Which butter did you use? and if CB, can you please share the recipe. Thanks Katie! 🙂
Hi Priya,
I did use the banana butter recipe, just subbing cashew butter for the peanut butter.
Definitely do let me know about the spinach if you try it! 🙂
They look fantastic — I LOVE chocolate and mint! Festive, to boot! Thanks 🙂
Mmmm, these look good, but I was definitely pulling for the spider cupcakes!
I was almost always a cheerleader or popstar. One year I was a teddy bear though, and this year, I’m being a mushroom!
Not a huge mint and chocolate fan… BUT I would try these for sure. 🙂 You managed to make them sound very tasty.
I LOVE Halloween, my best was Amy Winehouse. (RIP)…it was spot on and no one knew who I was… I was so unrecoginizable. 🙂
Mint chocolate is such a good combo! I was a robot for Halloween one year, my most awkward costume. But Halloween’s my favorite holiday so I remember most of them!
Another delicious looking recipe! I love mint, especially in cupcake form!!
You look so different in that picture. I was Simba for my first halloween I think and after that I was usually Cinderella.
Delicious cup cakes. Mint and chocolate is one of the best combinations.
Katie, Oh my gosh. YUUUUMMMM!!!! I love chocolate mint! Have I ever mentioned how obsessed I am with your mint chocolate chip smoothie?! YUUUM!
And for halloween-I always wanted to be a princess when I was little! Always.
Oh. My. God. That is the cutest photo I’ve ever seen.
I wanna add spinach to this :]