Thin Mint Cupcakes

As promised, here's the recipe for Thin Mint Cupcakes! Cracking up that this post follows my half marathon post -- I have to run to balance out thin mint cupcakes! :) These were truly a labor of love to do quickly for teacher appreciation week at Kirkley's preschool. It was the fastest "finger food" I could come up with that didn't require a trip to the store. A good big of Nick Jr. was watched to make these possible! :)

Thin Mint Cake

1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies

Cake:
1 box dark chocolate cake mix
1 3.9 oz box instant chocolate pudding mix
3/4 c canola oil
3/4 c water
4 eggs
1 t peppermint extract

Frosting:
2 tubs frosting (chocolate or buttercream)
1 t peppermint extract
2-3 drops green food coloring (if you want to tint white frosting)

- Preheat oven according to cake mix box.
- Put the sleeve of cookies in a gallon ziploc bag. Beat with rolling pin into chunks. Reserve 1 cup to sprinkle on cake layers. Put rest in with the cake batter.
- Mix all cake ingredients including extra cookie chunks on low 1 minute. Scrape sides. Mix 2 minutes on low.
- Pour into two greased 8 or 9 inch cake pans (I use Pam with Flour), spread evenly, and bake according to box directions. Or put in muffin tins and bake according to box directions.
- Cool completely.
- Mix all frosting ingredients gently with a spatula -- don't overmix but get the green worked through completely.
- Place first layer on cake plate. Frost top and sprinkle with 1/2 of the reserved cookies.
- Put second layer on, frost cake completely, and sprinkle with remaining cookie pieces.
- If doing cupcakes, pipe (I promise this is easy/fast) with a 1M tip then gently dip in cookie crumbs.
- Keep refrigerated.