Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcakes

The Art.
    One thing you must know about me is that I obsess about my baking. This past summer, I found a video tutorial on how to stripe a piping bag. The first thing that popped into my mind was to make cute little candy cane stripes on holiday-themed cupcakes. This idea has been waiting patiently in the back of my mind up till now, when the season is appropriate. To showcase this long-awaited striping effect, I made peppermint icing and used a large round tip. Chocolate cupcakes compliment the peppermint flavor perfectly, and mini candy canes add a little fun.

The Science.
    Not only does peppermint oil taste delicious, it also imparts antimicrobial properties. This is why food manufacturers use peppermint oil as a perservative [1].  Unfortunately, this essential oil is not very soluble in water and has a high volatility, so it will separate and evaporate over time. A recent publication has described a new method of creating peppermint nanoemulsions in order to overcome these obstacles [2]. An emulsion is a mixture of a hydrophobic substance (peppermint oil) and a amphipathic substance (ultrapure cornstarch) in water, where the amphipathic compound interacts with both the water and the oil and allows the mixture to stay in solution. Nanoemulsions are created by homogenizing the substances at very high pressure to create a very small particle size. Making the emulsified particles so small increases the number of amphipathic interactions and thus increases the solubility of the solution. In this way, the peppermint oil is protected from separating from the water content of the food, and retains its antimicrobial properties.

The Recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes: (Makes 15)
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cocoa
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


    Preheat oven to 350^oF and adjust rack to center position. Line cupcake tins with liners. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, dissolve cocoa in boiling water to allow it to "bloom." In a large bowl, beat together egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in bloomed cocoa. Pour 1/4 cup batter into each cupcake tin, and bake 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Peppermint Buttercream:
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil
No-taste red gel food color 

    Beat butter and shortening together in large bowl. Gradually beat in sugar until stiff, jagged peaks form. Beat in peppermint oil.



Decorating:
    Place a 1A round tip in a disposable piping bag. With a small paintbrush, paint four vertical lines of red gel food color on the inside of the piping bag.

    Fill bag with icing, and pipe onto parchment paper until the stripes come through. Pipe a swirl of icing on each cupcake and garnish with a mini candy cane.

 1. LisBalchin, M. et al. "Bioactivity of selected plant essential oils against Listeria monocytogenes." J. Appl. Microbiol, 1997, 82, 759-762

2. Liang, R. et al. "Physical and Antimicrobial Properties of Peppermint Oil Nanoemulsions."
J. Agric. Food Chem, 2012, 60 (30), pp 7548–7555