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You are going to love these show-stopping White Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Cupcakes! White chocolate vanilla cupcakes filled with a cool and creamy peppermint mousse and a white chocolate buttercream frosting for one delicious festive cupcake!
Peppermint is by far my favorite seasonal holiday flavor. I don’t think I could possibly live without peppermint mochas, candy canes, Andes peppermint crunch baking chips, or peppermint bark. I know that’s dramatic to say, but let’s be real: peppermint is the best!
I prefer it no contest to gingerbread and eggnog. In fact, truthfully I could probably live the rest of my life without eating gingerbread or eggnog and be okay. Is that totally horrible to say? Maybe. But my heart is filled already with the joys of mint. There is no room for anything else.
I know cupcakes aren’t typically a conventional holiday food – we all know cookies and candies dominate Christmastime – but I had to make an exception with these fantastic cupcakes. They are literally dreamy and I think one bite and you’ll agree.
They start with a cake mix, because cake mix gets a bad rap and I want to convince you of its life-saving properties. Okay, so maybe not life-saving, but life-changing for sure! Once you doctor up cake mix, it transforms it into this flavorful, fantastically fluffy cake. I started with a box of vanilla, or white, cake mix and doctored it with some white chocolate pudding mix. Just the dry powder – you do not make the pudding before adding it. The dry powder both helps flavor the cake with a subtle hint of white chocolate, but it also makes it supremely moist. I love this trick for totally transforming humble cake mix into something special.
After they’ve baked, you’ll make your peppermint mousse. The star of the mousse are the Andes peppermint crunch baking chips! These baking chips are similar to chocolate chips but are full of peppermint flavor. I absolutely LOVE them and always stock up this time of year. If you can’t find this specific product, you can use the Ghirardelli peppermint bark chips but your filling won’t be this gorgeous pink color that the Andes chips provides. And before you ask, you cannot use candy canes. Candy canes will melt into molten sugar and be disastrous. These peppermint crunch baking chips have more of a chocolate-based background so they melt smooth, whereas candy canes are a pure sugar background and will straight-up melt.
Fill the cupcakes and top with the most glorious white chocolate buttercream frosting everrrr! It’s so smooth and creamy and rich and totally tops off these cupcakes beautifully. Just before you serve them, be sure to sprinkle with some crushed candy canes and garnish with a square of peppermint bark to really drive home that amazing flavor.
White Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Cupcakes – welcome to your new holiday fave!
*in my book, Out of the Box Holiday Baking
White Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Cupcakes
Ingredients
- FOR THE CUPCAKES:
- One box vanilla or white cake mix
- 4 egg whites
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- One (3.4 oz box) INSTANT white chocolate pudding mix JUST the dry powder; do not make the pudding
- FOR THE PEPPERMINT MOUSSE:
- 1/2 cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips
- 1 cup plus 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar
- Crushed candy canes and peppermint bark squares for garnish optional but recommended
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 22-24 paper liners among 2 muffin cups. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, egg whites, water, oil, and dry pudding powder and beat with a handheld electric mixer until moistened and combined, about 2 minutes. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full.
- Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cupcakes comes out clean or with moist, not wet, crumbs. Cool the cupcakes completely.
- For the peppermint mousse: in a small bowl, combine the peppermint crunch baking chips and the 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream. Microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH power, stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool off briefly. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the remaining 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream on HIGH power for about 5-7 minutes or until soft peaks form. Pour in the melted peppermint chip mixture and continue beating on HIGH power until stiff peaks form.
- Using a paring knife or cupcake corer, core out the centers of the cupcake, careful not to pierce through the bottom. Discard the cores. Fill a piping bag with the peppermint mousse and pipe the mousse into each muffin cavity.
- For the frosting: In a small bowl, combine the white chocolate chips and the heavy whipping cream and microwave on HIGH power for 30 seconds, stirring until melted and smooth. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter until creamy and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add in the melted white chocolate and the vanilla and mix well. Lastly, add in the milk and confectioners' sugar and mix on low speed until fluffy and combined.
- Pipe or spread the white chocolate frosting evenly over the cupcakes, taking care to cover the peppermint mousse filling completely with icing. Garnish with crushed candy canes and peppermint bark squares, if desired. Store any leftover cupcakes in the fridge, covered completely, for about 4-5 days or at room temperature for 2-3 days, airtight.
Sweet, minty, cool and creamy with the most amazing peppermint mousse and white chocolate filling ever!
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
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