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.
Oh my goodness this looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
MINT CHOCOLATE IS THE BEST FLAVOR OF ANYTHING EVER!
I am so saving this recipe to make for my sister–she is all about anything mint chocolate. Plus, she’s eating for two these days, so she needs a little extra 🙂
Spinach in mint chocolate chip cupcakes is the perfect combo! http://skinnyfatgirls.com/2011/10/23/mint-chocolate-chip-cupcakes/
I guess great minds do think alike 🙂
Katie, I love that you had an open mind yesterday and actually changed your opinion from reading people’s comments. I learned a lot too! I think that’s what’s great about the blogging world…conversation…where bloggers are still people too, and learn as well. It’s what really makes it a community.
So I just wanted to thank you for opening up such a sticky conversation, and I hope you don’t shy away from it in the future.
Oh and the two costumes that I remember the best from childhood are “goddess of fall” and Joan Crawford. I remember all the adults really getting a kick out of Joan Crawford…=)
LoveloveLOVE the Frankenstein picture! Adorable!
I got more creative with my costumes as I got older. These days, I’m afraid to say, I’m usually just too darn tired to put a costume together for myself, so I put all the effort into my kids. They have at least 3 Halloween parties every year, and I just love it. (It’s my favorite holiday, can you tell, lol!)
One year I was a particularly gruesome dead bride (complete with slit throat. I was doing work as a makeup artist at the time). But one of my favorites was at our friends’ party: the theme was “Favorite Dead Celebrity” (we could get a bit morbid before the kids came along 🙂 ) and one friend dressed as Colonel Sanders, but his suit was black. He held a glowing red KFC bucket that said “Kentucky Died Chicken.” It was quite creative!
Hahaha love the costume! I remember being barbie, angel, pumpkin, hippie, butterfly, pirate, witch….obviously I am just too creative 😉
Mint and chocolate are so dreamy together! Katie, your cupcakes look sooooo good! I am going to make these with the new Mint Chocolate coconut milk from So Delicious. Should be amazing.
How many calories would be in these without the icing?! Can anyone help a girl out?! 🙂
THANKS!! Love anything mint mmm
I halved the recipe and made 11 mini ones with 24 calories each….
I think it partially depends on which ingredients you use and how much you add in terms of chips 😉
I’d love to know the calorie count too, please. They look SO yummy!!!
I dressed up like a chicken once XD Seriously. I wish that I still had that costume, and that it wasn’t kid-sized lol
Great recipe 🙂 I made them last night with some mods since I don’t have yogurt… They turned out amazing 😀