Girl Scout Cookie cupcakes are a thing.  So much a thing that I’ve even made them before via the Samoa variety.  I did some intense research about the Girl Scouts of America, by the way, about the whole Caramel deLites vs Samoas name debacle and was able to deduce some pretty good stuff.   Essentially, Samoas and Caramel deLites are the same cookie, but baked by separate companies.  Each Girl Scout Council chooses a licensed baker; each baker can use different names for their cookies.  The two big bakers are Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers. Funny, typeAbaker wasn’t a contender…

The exception is thin mints, both licensed bakers use the same name for that cookie.  Purely coincidental that I chose those to make though!

These were fun to make, it was one of those ideas I’ve had for a while, and turned out exactly as I envisioned!  Plus, the aroma in my kitchen was heaven!  You know the one, the smell when you open that new box of thin mints, 10 seconds after purchasing them even though you PROMISED you’d wait until you get home from the grocery store; that minty chocolately goodness.  Yep that’s what these smelled (and tasted) like!

The recipe for the frosting was actually a very successful experiment!  I have been getting bolder with my baking, I’m usually a by-the-recipe kinda gal, very Type-A I assure you.  But I like to push the envelope every once in a while, so I made up my own frosting recipe! I know, I know, it caused me a bit of agita too.   I took my trusty chocolate buttercream recipe and added a twist.  Just a subtle hint of mint, I was terrified of getting a too-minty toothpaste taste.  It’s a realistic fear though, because mint oreos taste like cookies with toothpaste in the middle. GAG

Chocolate-Mint Frosting

1 cup salted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup cocoa powder (dutch. unsweetened. obviously)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mint extract (don’t taste this. trust me.)
1/4 cup milk
2-3 cups confectioners sugar

Beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add cocoa powder, milk, vanilla extract and mint extract; mixing slowly at first until combined, beat until fully combined.  Add confectioners sugar to taste, and beat on high until light and fluffy.

These bad boys were to help commemorate a very good friend of mines’ 25th Birthday! What a better way to celebrate 25 than to throw it back to days of being 10 and ringing doorbells of stranger’s houses, completely unaccompanied by parents.  I was a girl scout and a little brownie way back when, well before my dreams of internet baking/blogging were even a thought.  Now, I say little and you laugh, but recently stumbled across photographic evidenced that at age 6 1/2, I stood a whopping 3.5 feet tall… so, yea little brownie.

To garnish, I had some green sugar at home, which doesn’t taste like anything but sugar, but makes you THINK it’s minty!

What’s next? More Girl Scout Cookie flavors? Or something completely new? We shall see!

Thanks for stopping by – Happy Baking!