Candy Cane Cupcakes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 25

Cook Time: 12

cooling time: 23

Total Time: 1

Servings: mini cupcakes

Calories: 334kcal

Author: Emily

These festive and cute Candy Cane Cupcakes are the perfect Christmas or Holiday dessert and tastes just like the candy!

Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Combine the milk and the vanilla and peppermint extracts and also set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth with the whisk attachment. Add the sugar and continue to beat until creamy and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, fully mixing them in each time. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat on low just until combined. Add the milk mixture and mix in. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and then the milk just until everything is combined. Don't overmix or your cupcakes will be dense! Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is mixed in.
Crush the candy canes into small pieces in a bag. Add a small sprinkle of flour to the bag and shake to cover the candy cane pieces. This will help them float in the batter instead of going right to the bottom. Add the candy canes to the batter and give a few gentle stirs to mix in.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake liners until they are ¾ full. Bake for 12-14 minutes for mini cupcakes or 20-22 minutes for regular cupcakes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow the cupcakes to fully cool before frosting.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for 3-4 minutes with the beater attachment. Add one cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of cream or milk and fully combine. Repeat with another cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of cream. Add the extracts and continue mixing. Add more powdered sugar and cream to get your desired sweetness and consistency (I used 2 cups powdered sugar and 2 tablespoon cream).
To get the swirl, you will need to place half of the frosting in another mixing bowl. Add the red food coloring and mix in completely.
Spread out a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Take the white frosting and lay it out in a line. Do the same with the red frosting right next to the white. Gently roll the two frostings together creating a tube, hold each end of the plastic wrap and spin around until each end is nice and tight.
Cut off one end and place the entire plastic tube into the piping bag fitted with a tip. When you squeeze out the frosting you will have half red and half white! Add sprinkles if desired and enjoy!

This recipe makes 12 regular cupcakes or 30 mini cupcakes.
To get the best results make sure you follow all of the steps in this recipe.
One of the most important things is to ensure your ingredients are all at room temperature before baking.
Another super important tip is DO NOT OVERMIX the batter. Otherwise, you will end up with dense cupcakes, which is not good. Use your stand mixer or hand mixer just until everything is combined and then turn it off.
Use a spatula to scrape down the bowl and incorporate the candy cane pieces
Make sure the cupcakes cool completely before frosting. Otherwise, you will end up with frosting that is runny and melted.
Nutrition info is for 1 regular cupcake.