Decadent Girl Scout Thin Mints Cupcake with Whipped Ganache

This post has been com[ensated by North East Ohio Girl Scouts. All opinions are my own. 

If you happen to be waiting for your Girl Scout cookie order, your wait is almost over!

Pretty soon Girl Scouts will be delivering boxes of delicious cookies all over their neighborhoods and will be opening cookie booths at area stores. In fact, Girl Scouts of the USA has declared February 26-28, 2016 National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend.

Helping my Dasiy sell Girl Scout cookies has been quite an adventure. She has made phone calls, asked relatives, and will soon be delivering orders. With each sale, she grows more confident in her task which helped her to meet her goal.

Selling cookies are only a small part of the Girl Scout experience, but vital. Money from each box of cookies sold help support her Girl Scouts of North East Ohio troop and activities that they will do.

Cookie booths begin March 3, so you haven't missed out, yet. Download the official Girl Scout Cookie Finder on Apple and Android, or visit girlscoutcookies.org to find a booth in your neighborhood.

To celebrate this special weekend, I teamed up with Girl Scouts of North East Ohio to recreate a recipe from the Girl Scout website. Let me start by saying that having four boxes of Thin Mints at home and not eat any has been crazy hard. But, the cupcake I made was well worth the wait! I know I shouldn't brag, but sometimes I forget that I'm a good baker.

This recipe is a slight variation of the cupcake that Crystal Oliver created for Girl Scouts of America.

My version has whipped ganache frosting instead of homemade frosting topped with ganache. At the time, I was being lazy, but the balance of rich cupcake with smooth chocolate topping was perfect. I also use box cake mix, but I don't follow the instructions.

Send cookies to the troops or order online! 

Using a small food processor, I crumbled the cookies in two batches before using the blender to fold in soften cream cheese. A bigger food processor would have probably done it all at once, but I did not really think that through.

My last few baking ventures have involved rolling dough into small balls before baking. I giggle every time and with every ball thinking about the SNL skit with Alex Baldwin and his schweddy balls.

I did not follow the one tablespoon of batter per cupcake liner as directed and came up a little short on the last couple of cupcakes. One the positive side, two of the cupcakes were extra big.

Next time, I'll use a different tip on my frosting bag to make them prettier. 

Thin Mints chocolate cupcake with whipped ganache frosting

Cupcake

• 1 package chocolate cake mix
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 large eggs

Truffle center

• 2 packages Girl Scout Thin Mints® cookies
• 1 8 ounces softened package cream cheese

Directions

1. Mix the box cake mix, melted butter, water, and eggs together and put one tablespoon of batter in each cupcake liner. Set aside.
2. Leaving out 24 Thin Mints for the garnishing, throw the rest into a food processor for the truffle. Crush the cookies until they are fine and blend in the cream cheese.
3. Roll cream cheese and cookie mixture into 24 little balls about an inch in diameter and put one in each cupcake liner.
4. Top the truffles with the remaining batter and bake at 350 degrees for 19 minutes.

Whipped Mint Chocolate Ganache Frosting

• 2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Melt chips and cream in the microwave, on high for two minutes
2. Whip and return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Repeat until all of the chocolate is incorporated into the cream.
3. Put in fridge to cool. Cool until it sticks to your spoon. (mine took about two hours)
4. Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and whip until it's the consistency of frosting.
5. Pipe ganache on cupcakes and garnish with half of a Thin Mint and crumble the second half on top. 

Be it coffee, tea, or milk everyone has their favorite way to dunk their Girl Scout Cookies. Join Girl Scouts of North East Ohio in the fun on National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend by tweeting @GSNEO how you dunk your Girl Scout Cookies, with the hashtag #howdoyoudunk to show your support.  

So, #HowDoYouDunk?

It's never too late to join! Go to http://gsneo.org/mom to find a troop today! 

Stay tuned! I will be sharing another Girl Scout inspired recipe soon!