So this week’s recipe is a mocha cupcake with coffee buttercream. Surprise! Another cupcake!
With a half cup of coffee and a few teaspoons of instant espresso in both the cake and frosting, these can pass as a breakfast food and take the place of your morning coffee.
I found this recipe floating around on food blogs recently. Garnering great reviews and looking very photogenic in all its foodie photo shoots, I thought I’d give these cupcakes a spin. The cake is chocolate and coffee flavored (duh, they are “mocha”), and the frosting is a basic buttercream flavored with vanilla and espresso.
I thought these cupcakes were only okay … nothing spectacular. The cake wasn’t as rich and dark chocolately as I had hoped, and the crumb was too loose – I like a dense cupcake with a tight crumb. These were more fluffy.
The frosting is whipped so that it’s soft and deceptively light. As it melts on your tongue, you’ll get a hit of some more coffee flavor.
Check it out for yourself.
I frosted the cupcakes three ways: rosettes dusted with cocoa, the traditional swirled top, and a flat-topped mound with sides rolled in chopped chocolate.
Read on for the recipe.
Recipe: Mocha Cupcakes
These cupcakes go great with coffee buttercream.
Ingredients
- 1-1/3 all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup strong brewed coffee
- 1½ teaspoons espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
Instructions
- Mix the espresso powder into the brewed coffee until dissolved; set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard-size muffin tin with paper liners.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, brewed coffee mixture and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting cupcakes.
Number of servings (yield): 12 (* I got 16 cupcakes)
Recipe: Espresso Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2½ cups powdered sugar
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1½ teaspoons espresso powder
Instructions
- Mix the espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside.
- Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two.
- Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.
Quick Notes
This makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes.
This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2010.
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These recipe seem delicious because I like do much cakes, also I could see those cakes have creative designs.
I made these but I cheated and used a box mix, and I used Starbucks Via instead of espresso powder. The cake part was okay (I added some Via to that too) but the frosting! Wow! My roomate and I ate most of them but I gave one to a guy at work (2 weeks ago) and he came to me yesterday and told me he hasn’t stopped thinking about them since. I’m making more tomorrow for a friends birthday.
Thanks for the idea!
this looks like complete perfection. the recipe looks simple enough as well.
My only concern is it too much coffee flavoring going on? I can only handle so much.