Thin Mint Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream
Those sweet Girl Scouts are out and about again this year and I’ll be darned if I can’t walk by their table at the grocery store and pass up buying a box (or four. Just kidding.) Last year I bought some thin mints and ate (without shame) too many to be able to create a recipe. So I made some cookies with Tagalongs. This year, though, I tore into the box when I got home but instead of digging right in, I crushed them up and threw them into a rich and moist chocolate cake recipe!
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of chocolate. Most of you know I’d rather have some Twizzlers, butterscotch or sprinkles. That is all true until you are talking about chocolate and mint. Nothing stops me when a box of thin mints are around and these Thin Mint Cupcakes are the perfect way to enjoy my favorite Girl Scout Cookies. Just look at how rich the batter looks: (don’t worry, it tasted amazing too!)
The second day we lived in our new house, we were up to our ears in paint when our doorbell rang. It was our new neighbors bringing us some treats. So the following weekend I made these Thin Mint cupcakes to share back with them. The cake is so moist and decadent without being too sweet. It was the perfect match for the Thin Mints and the mint buttercream.
Thin Mint Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Total Time: 40 min
Rich chocolate cupcake recipe with crushed Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies and topped with a homemade mint buttercream frosting.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey Special Dark – but use what you prefer)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 large egg
1/2 cup low-fat plain (or vanilla) yogurt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 sleeve Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies (16 cookies), crushed slightlyfor the mint buttercream:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. mint extract
2 Tbs. milk, more if neededDirections:
Heat to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cavity cupcake pan with paper liners. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and baking soda. Set aside.In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter, cocoa powder, salt and water together. Stir and cook until melted. Remove from heat.
Add about half of the butter/cocoa mixture to the dry ingredients. Add the remaining butter/cocoa mixture and stir until fully combined. Whisk in the egg and stir well. Add the yogurt and the vanilla and stir well. Stir in the crushed cookies.
Portion the batter evenly into the lined cupcake pan, filling each liner about 3/4-full.
Bake in the preheated oven for 17-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completelywhile the cupcakes cool, prepare the buttercream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the butter with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and slowly incorporate until smooth and fluffy. Add the mint extract and salt and whip just to combine. Stream in the milk.
For a thicker frosting, skip the milk, or just add more powdered sugar. If the frosting needs thinned out, add a little more milk.
Frost the cupcakes any way you like.
Cassie’s Notes:
If you don’t have any Thin Mints on hand, try adding crushed Oreo cookies or any of your favorite snack cookies.Cake recipe adapted from Bi Rite Market's Eat Good Food cookbook via Two Peas and Their Pod.
Print Recipe
This look delicious! I love chocolate and mint. Well, chocolate and anything really
So glad I ordered 2 boxes of Thin Mints this year!!! wow
These are so beautiful! I LOVE thin mints!!! 🙂
I know know what to do with the umpteen boxes if thin mints I have!
These look amazing! And I don’t love Thin Mints. (Don’t tell anyone.) Also, in Serbia, if someone brings you a plate of food or sweets, the tradition is that you must fill the plate to return it. It would be rude to give back an empty tupperware etc. I love that tradition!
These sound fabulous!!!
Totally genius and totally dangerous. 😉
Well, now I pretty much have a giant Thin Mint craving! I love chocolate of all sorts, and I definitely love chocolate with mint!
I LOVE Thin Mints so these cupcakes sound perfect to me! The buttercream sounds amazing too!
how did you know my favorite thing in the whole world?! i love mint + chocolate. really wishing i had one of these right about now 🙂
Wow! Thin Mints are the fave cookie among all the men in my house! This would be a perfect cupcake version for one of their birthdays! Can’t wait to try it!!
Oh yum. Seriously… I can almost taste one. Sounds so goooooooood! 🙂
I’ve almost eaten a whole sleeve of thin mints by myself! The good thing about me going back to work is that I won’t be tempted anymore by cookies or cupcakes. I can’t believe you aren’t a HUGE fan of Chocolate!!!
I can never pass up those girl scouts!! I need to find some thin mints asap now!
Like I said on Twitter, these Girl Scouts should take a few notes from you! These cupcakes definitely need to be added to their goodie bag!
You have no idea how much I wish I had a box of thin mints on hand – these look amazing!! Chocolate and mint is my fave combo ever 🙂
These look like the best cupcakes ever. I’ll take a dozen!!
Mint buttercream? Yes, please.
Cassie, this is exactly what I would want to make with my Thin Mint Cookies…if I hadn’t eaten them all in 2 days; all by myself I might add.
This has St. Paddy’s Day written all of it. Yummy Cassie!
These are gorgeous, Cassie! I love mint and chocolate!
Beautiful! I want one soooo bad!
oh these have my name all over them!! can’t wait to get my hands on some Thin Mint GS cookies soon!!
I didn’t order any girl scout cookies this year so I’m thinking I may need to make these cupcakes instead! They look delicious!
Love thin mints! Do you know I’ve been looking everywhere for those little girls and their evil boxes of addiction, but I haven’t found any. Maybe it’s a good thing, since my husband loves them even more than I do and he’d go through 10 boxes in 24 hours, no joke. These cupcakes look fab Cassie!
I’m just starting to come round to the chocolate/mint combination having avoided it for years and I think these would be the final stage in my conversion!
BEST idea!!! I think I’d like these better than the actual cookies 🙂
Thin mints IN the cupcakes? I think I’m in love.
Wish I could make these, but my box of thin mints were gone in a flash!
These look incredible, Cassie… so rich and decadent! Heading down to the grocery store to find me some Girl Scout cookies!
I’m actually receiving about 3 boxes of thin mints either today or tomorrow so you know I’ll be making this soon – maybe tomorrow!
Thin Mints (frozen) are my absolute fav.
I think I have 7 boxes of GS cookies right now. I don’t even know what to do. I think I might just start throwing them at passing cars to get rid of them. And still, I’m a total sucker for kids selling candy & cookies so I’m sure there will be more in my life soon.
What a perfect idea to add the cookies to the cupcakes! Love chocolate and mint together – can never get enough of those Girl Guide cookies either! 🙂
Gorgeous cake and that Bi-Rite recipe is one I’ve wanted to try for awhile. Sounds like a keeper. Thin Mints are always a keeper, too!
You can never go wrong with thin mints! Gorgeous cupcakes!
Mmm, these look divine!
Gorgeous cupcakes! I think the Girl Scouts here will be happy when I buy them out of thin mints 🙂
These look beautiful, Cassie! I love thin mints, and I bet they’re even better in cupcakes! 🙂
Are you kidding me! WOW! Thin mint cupcakes…hold me back!!!
Me too, Cassie – I have a serious weakness for mint and chocolate. I love the idea of putting them in cupcakes, but you’re right that it would take some serious self control not to eat them straight up. These definitely look worth holding some back to bake with though! I heard we have some coming in a care package!
oh lady! this is like a mint taste explosion and i’m all about it! mint & chocolate are my FAVORITE combos in dessert! well, one of my fav – it’s so tasty and my weakness 🙂
Um yum! Mint and chocolate is one those combinations where you can never go wrong. I am gonna go run out to find some Thin Mints right now so I can make this cupcakes.
This look absolutely WOW Cassie….
The Mint Butter Cream … YUM…
Now I really have to look for thin mints..
b/w I am loving the 1st pic… Beautiful!
Oh Cassie, I could eat at least a dozen of these! We live in such a small town that there are no Girl Scouts and that means no cookies!
Those Girl Scouts kill my diet EVERY YEAR!!! And these are throwing a wrench into those plans too. I’ll have to buy another box just for these!
These cupcakes look fantastic!
I need these amazing cupcakes in my life! They look fabulous!
Oh dear me. You had me at Thin Mint. I think my family will love me forever if I make these.
I have not yet bought a box of GS cookies this year. Trying to be so strong. But, these awesome cupcakes aren’t helping! ;P
You had me at Thin Mint! Yum!
SUCH a fun idea. Love live thin mints! They are so classic, and I love the thought of turning them into a mint-frosted cupcake. So pretty too!
I would have a hard time not eating 12 of these in one sitting. So delicious looking!
Oh good lord. This is INSANE! I bet these taste DIVIIIINE frozen! 🙂
Ill buy a box of these please! 😀 So pretty, and PERFECT frosting technique Cassie!!! Love!!
oh yum! i don’t know if the cupcake or the frosting is better here! usually it’d be the cake all the way, but with these i’m not sure… 🙂
Oh good heavens Cassie! These are my favorite GS cookies and you put them in cupcakes! I. DIE.
Cassie! I love that there are crushed cookies INSIDE the cupcake batter. oh my goodness. 🙂 I honestly think I could eat thin mints… for the rest of my life!! And cupcake too. perfect lol!
Seriously?! I want to be your neighbor.
Our new neighbors brought over peanut butter cookies to us before Christmas and I have failed and not taken anything to them! This looks like the perfect recipe to make for them!
Yum!! I’d love to have JUST ONE!!
I love chocolate and mint together – how perfect in a cupcake!
I’m right there with you on not being able to resist the GS cookies, Cassie. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I haven’t seen any Girl Scouts hanging around outside the grocery stores when I’ve been there. But I HAVE to find them now… cause I really want these cupcakes *sobs pitifully*
Yes please! I haven’t purchased a box of my own yet, but plenty of people at work have been sharing their stashes of Girl Scout Cookies!
Perfection in a cupcake. I need these.
My Daisy troop made them for the 101st Birthday of Girl Scouts today. What a hit! LOVE them and will make them for a bake sale for my son’s Cub Scout Pack. Thank You!!
Cassie replied: — March 13th, 2013 @ 5:27 pm
This made my day, so glad they were a big hit! 🙂
In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the name cup cake or cupcake. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in. This is the use of the name that has remained, and the name of “cupcake” is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup.:,
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My daughters troop is in the middle of cookie sales so I made these for the meeting on her birthday … Every Mom asked for the recipe!