More tiny cakes = more joy! # 323: Peppermint Chocolate Cake Bites

When life gives you Andes mints, you make tiny cakes. That’s how the saying goes, right?

The recipe called these ‘friands’, but with the main ingredient missing, they had a bit of an identity crisis. Without almond flour, they’re just tiny brownie-like cupcakes.

Friands are financier’s sibling: both smol, rich and almond-centric. It’s apparently less common for financiers to have a mix-ins, so maybe I’ve been making friands all along? Oops.

These made me want to break out the scissors to make paper snowflakes!

I wonder how the mint chocolate pairing came to be seasonal. (Except for mint chocolate chip ice cream, which is the goat and deserves to be eaten all year round.) Maybe December’s influx of hot chocolate and candy canes turned it into a winter flavor combo? Either way, these little guys feel festive.

Bring on the butter.

Photographer caught in shiny chocolate.

Thicc.

Accio batter!

To line the tins or not line the tins? The ultimate cupcake question.

I added a chunk of 100% baking chocolate along with the Andes mints to help mellow out the sweetness of the ganache.

Now watch me dip, dip 🎶

Ganache has a secret (frustrating) ingredient: time. If you want an opaque coat of chocolatey goodness, you have to wait for it to fully cool down and thicken. I definitely dipped a few of these before it was the right viscosity and had to re-dunk them.

Snowflake recipe: a pile of powdered sugar mixed with a tiny amount of cream, piped on before the ganache sets.

Fa la la la!

Happy munching!

Recipe based on: Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt & Chad Robertson