These are the cupcakes I made for the Capital Cupcake Camp this year. The recipe was a bit of an experiment, but a successful one in the end. Katy and I tried out our recipes a couple of weekends before the camp to see if they would work, and my first batch did not turn out so great, possibly because I was substituting a couple of key ingredients (substituting baking powder for baking soda has a ridiculous ratio). The taste was nice enough, but they went dry very quickly. Also, the after burn was a bit much. Luckily, a professional pastry chef I know (Leticia) had a taste and made a couple of recommendations to tweak it. Her best idea was using cream cheese in the icing.

The end result shows its heritage in the Mint Chocolate Cupcakes I’ve posted here before, and has spices and icing inspired by a recipe contributed by barkcreative on nibbledish.com.

I was really pleased with the result, which is more rich than sweet and best served with a cold glass of milk.