BakeBakeBake

I was going to make it into a cake, but I remembered I bought these cupcake liners years ago and never used them. Voila.




Ingredients:
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C AP flour
1 C sugar
1/4 C dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C water
1/4 C plus 2 TB canola oil
1 TB lemon juice (or white vinegar)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3-4 drops food grade peppermint essential oil

Directions:
Mix together flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda. (I pulsed through food processor, because my cocoa always clumps - woe, wet climates.) To this, add the sugar, water, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, vanilla and peppermint. Mix until blended.

Grease/line an 8 inch round/square pan or line muffin pan with 12 liners. Distribute batter accordingly. ;)

Bake at 350F. 35-40 minutes for cake, 20-25 for cupcakes.

Cool, then frost.

Icing:

8 oz light cream cheese*
a bit of butter
powdered sugar

Blend ingredients until good consistency is gained. Fold in crushed peppermint stick (about 1/3 of a 1 oz cane worked for me), or not.

*I think you could skip the butter if you use regular cream cheese and maybe add some milk; my icing got a little clumpy because I added some butter in an attempt to prevent light cream cheese soupy frosting, and the butter wasn't soft enough. These cupcakes were built based on what I happened to have in the house. LOL.

The verdict: HOLY YUM. Incredibly moist and tender and really, really good. Can also be made with regular cocoa powder, but I like the dark, myself.