Growing up as the baby of the family—I am the youngest of 9—I had access to unlimited candy resources.I was the reigning queen of a private candy nirvana. Those were the days! Even when my mom wouldn’t give me my candy fix, there was always a sibling who took pity on me. That’s one of the major benefits of growing up with 5 mothers.

My sister, Celia, had a pretty odd way of eating our traditional Dutch liquorice though. She would never eat it as is. Nope, what she did was she’d take a round piece of liquorice (topdrop) and place a peppermint on top gently pressing it down into the liquorice. Basically she turned it into some sort of black & white sugar sandwich. It was awesome.

Somehow the crunchy peppermint goes great with the sticky liquorice. I tried to turn those flavors from my past into special cupcakes and must say I think I succeeded.

These liquorice cupcakes with peppermint frosting are my tribute to my big sis, who is a much better baker than I could ever hope to be!


Ingredients:


Cupcakes:

1 stick butter (115 gr)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 oz soft sweet liquorice
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp water
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/2 tsp salt

Peppermint Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar
25 soft peppermint pillows (or 1 tsp peppermint extract)


Directions:

First things first, the butter. I always use salted butter.

Here’s 1/2 a cup firmly packed brown sugar, 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 2 room temp eggs.

Cream the butter and sugar for 4 or 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs—one at a time— and beat until it’s creamy.

This is the liquorice I’ve used. Next time I’m going for the really salty liquorice, it’s my favorite.

Put the liquorice in a pan and add 2 tbsp water.

Melt the liquorice over low heat while stirring occasionally. When it looks too dry, add 1 or 2 tbsp water. I used a total of 4 tbsp water.

I decided not to melt it completely so the cupcakes would have little black specks in them. Melting this stuff really makes your kitchen and house smell great!

Add the melted liquorice to the sugar butter. Along with the baking powder and salt and beat until it’s a smooth brown concoction.

Silky, almost.

Add the flour and stir until just combined.

Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners and fill them 2/3 of the way with the batter. Bake them at 350F (175C) for 18 to 20 minutes.

Let them cool on the rack. They were so light and fluffy!

I tried to get my hands on peppermint extract and I couldn’t. Drove me nuts. So I opted for soft peppermint pillows that I turned into peppermint powder using my coffee mill.

Combine the (soft) cream cheese with the peppermint powder (or 1 tsp extract) and 2 cups confectioners sugar. It will look grainy at first…

But after a few minutes it will have magically transformed into a firm, creamy, and amazing frosting.

I used a Wilton M1 tip to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.



Biggest kiss and all the love in the world,

Your little sis



Kay’s Recipe Card

Click here for printable size.