Start with my favorite dark chocolate cupcakes then make peppermint frosting. You could easily just keep the frosting white and top the cupcakes with crushed candy canes for crunch. But if you want to do the peppermint swirl, tint half the frosting red then spread the frosting side-by-side on a piece of Saran wrap.

Note: here I used all of the frosting but I typically do half the frosting at a time because the bag is easier to manage. The saran wrap actually burst with all of the frosting so learn from my mistakes and do half at a time!

Chocolate Peppermint Swirl Cupcakes
24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For the frosting:
6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.4 tsp peppermint extract
4 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two muffin cup pans with cupcake liners and spray each with non-stick spray.
2. Combine sugar, flour, dark cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add milk, oil and vanilla all at once and beat on medium speed of mixer about two minutes. Stir in the boiling water. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 
4. Make peppermint frosting (see below) and, if desired, tint half red. Set a piece of cling wrap on the counter and spread the frosting on the cling wrap side-by-side as shown in the photos above. Roll up like a tube and put the whole tube inside a large pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Frost as you normally would cupcakes and voila – a peppermint swirl frosting!

Peppermint Frosting:

1. Cream together 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 stick softened butter with an electric mixer.
2. Beat in two more cups of powdered sugar and 2 Tbsp milk, then second stick of butter, remaining two cups of powdered sugar, peppermint extract, and last 2 Tbsp milk. Beat until smooth. Add additional milk or powdered sugar if needed for desired consistency.

Happy swirling,