Peppermint Swirls and a Ladies' Event

OK, so I haven't posted in a bit. In fact, it's been almost a week! While I haven't had the chance to get on the computer, I have been busy, I promise!

Just recently I had the chance to participate in a Women's Boutique Event where I got to showcase some of our favorite cupcakes as well as some fun new holiday ones, too. Below are some pictures I took of our table and cupcakes:

Clockwise from left: rotating cupcake tree with 4 flavors - Lemonade Dream (our signature flavor), Strawberry Shortcake, Cherry Bomb, and chocolate cream-filled cupcakes, sign reading: "Chocolate doesn't make the world go 'round but it sure does make the trip worthwhile!", cute vintage flour and sugar tins, our shop sign, Halloween cupcakes, a stand with cupcake samples, our mailing list sign-up sheet, and another tray with samples. In the middle is a little stand with business cards, my cupcake table runner (a present from my hubby ♥), and our new Peppermint Swirl cupcakes on a stand.

Here's a closeup of our Halloween cupcake stand:

I took note of the fun fondant bones from Alicia at Red Deer and made some of my own, though mine look like they've been in the ground a lot less than hers -- Haha! Next time I'll smudge 'em up a bit:

Of course, there had to be some pumpkins!

Getting back to those new Peppermint Swirl cupcakes, here's the story on those. I've decided I want to try my hand at a new cupcake each week. Of course this will be as time allows but last week, well, time allowed. I wanted a holiday cupcake and the flavors I've tried already have been red velvet, gingerbread, pumpkin, and sweet potato. This time I wanted to mimic a favorite holiday treat: the candy cane! After a bit of research online, I decided I liked this Peppermint Patty Brownie Cupcake recipe by Martha Stewart, posted by justJENN.

One of the problems I ran into can be seen in the picture below:

DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE?? I can't figure out why this happens for the life of me. I have a standard size cupcake tin and I'm using standard size cupcake liners (from Wilton, no less!) and yet almost 100% of the liners crinkled like this after putting batter in. Not all liners do this but I don't know why the ones that do, do. Anyone?? Anyone?? Oh so annoying. Here's my reaction to watching my lovely liners wrinkle up:

Can you tell how annoyed I am? Yep, annoyed.

Anywho, though the recipe calls for mini York peppermint patties, I could only find big ol' patties so I just cut 'em up into fourths:

I started to clean up the table after putting the cupcakes in the oven, but wait! What do I see??

A chocolate mustache! Ahahahaha!!

OK OK OK, I pulled the cupcakes out and LOOK at these gooey little cups of joy! They're just OOZING peppermint-y flavor!
I love the cracked tops, too. Very reminiscent of brownies. I think I baked these a little too long, though. I kept them in for about 27 minutes when I think I could have pulled them out at 25. Oh well! They were still really good.

I iced them with a peppermint buttercream (still not SMBC though!) that I swirled with red (all right fine, more like PINK) and white. Perfect icing but, like justJENN commented, these don't NEED a frosting. They're great both ways! If you ask me, though, a cupcake deserves frosting (see Step 8 of our Blackbottom Cupcakes post to see the resolution of that conflict).