Brownie Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

For brownies, stir together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar. Mix in the vanilla and the 3 eggs (1 at a time), until combined. Fold in the flour mixture, mixing just until flour is completely moistened. Mix in your mint chocolate chips.

Spray 24 cupcake liners with baking spray (brownie cupcakes are sticky!) and fill each about 1/2 full with brownie batter.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes, being careful not to over (or under) cook. You don’t want the middle of the brownies looking too wet before you take them out (or the cupcakes will collapse in on themselves), but you don’t want burnt edges either.

While the cupcakes are cooling completely, we’re going to make the best frosting ever! Don’t be concerned about the fact that it has flour in it. Trust me on this.

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens up like a paste. You want it to be about as thick as your brownie batter. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must completely cool before you use it!

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat it a long time to get as much graininess out of it as possible.

Stir the vanilla and peppermint extract into your cooled flour/milk mixture. Then add it to your sugar/butter mixture and beat it a long, long time until it resembles whipped cream. Then beat it some more.

…then beat it some more, because you probably still haven’t beaten it enough. Ok, good.

Grab a spoon and taste test it, just to make sure it’s not poisonous.

If there’s any left after all the testing, spread it liberally on top of your cupcakes.

Sprinkle them with fun little green sprinkles, just to make things extra festive.