Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Is anyone tired of delicious cupcakes yet?

 A few girls from work came over for a baking extravaganza Saturday night.

 We made whoopie pies (first time!), pumpkin cinnamon rolls, spice apple caramel cookies, peanut butter oreo stuffed fudge brownie cups, aaaaaaand peppermint mocha cupcakes.

 Another recipe from Annie's Eats.  My internet recipe book is now stuffed with her recipes that I printed this weekend.

I'm sorry.

Not really.

 Let me tell you a story about these cupcakes.

They have espresso powder and peppermint oil in them.  I cannot explain how delicious the batter smelled.  If I wouldn't have had company, I would have locked myself in a closet with the bowl and eaten every.last.drop. of batter.

I thought that might be a little unconventional/disgusting/weird for my coworkers to witness.  So I didn't.

But I could have.

 I decided to try piping the frosting from a gallon ziploc baggie this time, rather than using a piping bag.  To get the swirled effect of the frosting we added food coloring to half the batch, then filled one side of the bag with white, and the other side with red/pink frosting.  I figured a gallon bag was a little larger, thus a little easier to do this in.

I was right.

I also figured I could just snip off a corner and pipe the frosting right out of the hole in the bag.

I was wrong.

I was holding the scissors up to the corner of the bag to cut the corner off...then I had a seizure and snipped a hole the size of a quarter into the bag.  It was one of those moments where we all just froze, then everyone slowly looked at me, and all I could say was "Uh.  Whoops?"

My boss and I ended up shoving a large star piping tip through the frosting, into the corner of the bag, and duct taping the edge of the hole around the pipping tip.  It was ghettofabulous and functional.  And our frosting bag looked like a tropical fish!  I kid you not.  We drew eyes on her and everything.  She was our bake night mascot.

 If you need some ideas for tasty holiday treats, don't forget to check out Annie's blog - she's amazing, me thinks.  I'm super excited about her Brain With Blod Clot cupcakes.  I shall make those for Halloween next year.  Or I could always make them whenever I wanted to celebrate the fact that I haven't had a stroke?

Don't judge me.

Ps...this recipe was delicious.  Did I mention that?  Absolutely fabulous.  Go make these, too.