As I mentioned recently, I’ve been on a quest to create cupcake recipes that are inspired by my favorite flavors of Girl Scout cookies. I’ve already shown you my Lemonades Girl Scout cookie cupcakes and now I want to show you another popular one — Thin Mints.

I think Thin Mints are probably the most famous Girl Scout cookie, and they’re certainly My Honey’s favorite. He can eat a whole box in one sitting! When coming up with this recipe I needed to be sure to include the chocolate and mint flavors, of course, but the crucial part was the cookie crunch. I ended up adding crunch in two places to really make it stand out. Mmm, these are so yummy!

Cake ingredients:

• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract
• 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1 box of Devil’s Food cake mix and whatever ingredients the box requires (usually eggs, oil, and water)

Preheat the oven to whatever the cake mix directions state, then start by making the crust. If you can’t find chocolate graham cracker crumbs at the store, you can easily make your own. Just get some chocolate graham crackers (I used Chocolate Teddy Grahams) and grind them up in a mini food processor. Add the crumbs to a bowl containing the butter, sugar, and extract.

Mix well until the butter is evenly distributed through the crumbs and the mixture resembles wet sand. Then use a spoon to distribute the crumbs evenly among 24 cupcake liners.

To pack down the crumbs into a nice crust, stick a 1/4 cup measuring cup (or a small glass or bowl) down inside the liner and press down on the inside with your fingers. Voila, perfectly smooth crusts!

Bake the crusts for 3 minutes just to get them set, then pour in your prepared chocolate cake batter.

While the cupcakes are cooking according to the package directions, you can work on the frosting.

Frosting ingredients:

• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or semisweet if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup of softened butter (not margarine!)
• 1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs, for garnish
• mint leaves, for garnish

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Mix the butter in the mixer until fluffy, then add the vanilla and peppermint extracts. Pour the melted chocolate (cooled to room temperature!) into the bowl with the butter.

Mix the butter and chocolate together until you have a silky and smooth mixture. Then add the powdered sugar and mix again. Finally, add the shortening, which will give the frosting a wonderful texture and great spreadability. Mix well until fluffy.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, frost them with the chocolate frosting (assuming you didn’t eat it all already). Use a mini offset spatula to frost them fairly smooth, but don’t worry about being perfect.

Now for the fun part! Put some more chocolate graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and dunk the cupcake right down into them. Press down somewhat firmly so that the crumbs stick well. Make sure you do this before the frosting has a chance to dry at all, or they won’t stick.

This is so much easier than trying to get perfectly smooth frosting, don’t you think? For a final touch, stick a little mint leaf in the middle. This is optional, of course, but it looks so darn cute I don’t know how you could stand not to do it!

What a wonderful new way to celebrate the classic taste of the Thin Mint cookie.

My favorite part is the cookie crust on the bottom of the cupcake. I think it tastes just like a Thin Mint!

Now I’ve shared two of my Girl Scout cookie cupcake recipes with you, and I have one more planned. I’m saving the best for last!