It’s National Cupcake Week! Well, it’s the last day of National Cupcake Week, but better late than never, right? In honour of this week (well, no it was actually because I was craving chocolate cupcakes) and inspired by picking up a packet of cappuccino pearl sprinkles on sale in a local shop, I created this delicious, decadent coffee infused chocolate cupcake especially for the occasion.
I may be tooting my own horn a bit here, but this cupcake recipe is absolutely fantastic! The coffee infused chocolate cupcake itself has a lovely crumb, rich chocolate flavour and a slightly reddish colouring due to the use of baking soda. During recipe development I investigated why some recipes call for baking soda and others for baking powder. Apparently, baking soda is used when there is an acidic ingredient, such as cocoa powder and a chemical reaction between the two gives the bake a lovely reddish tinge to the chocolate.
This was the first time I’d ever tried piping multicoloured frosting and I’m pretty pleased at how effective it looks. The buttercream recipe is one I’ve been using for two decades now, but with the addition of strong coffee instead of hot water.
Just try it – I’m sure you’ll be impressed!
I’m sharing this recipe with two blogging challenges: first, Kat at The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi have teamed up and launched a new challenge: Treat Petite, which is all about sharing recipes for individual sized portioned treats, including cupcakes!
Secondly, this month’s Calendar Cakes is all about Cupcakes in honour of National Cupcake week too. This challenge, co-hosted by Dolly from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes is hosted over on Laura’s blog this month. This challenge is a blog hop, so scroll down to see what lovely cupcakes other foodies have been making.
- 150 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 300 grams caster sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 125 ml full fat milk
- 125 ml strong, cold filter coffee or espresso
- 275 grams plain flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50 grams cocoa powder
- 150 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 9 tbsp, divided hot filter coffee or espresso
- 1 kg, divided icing sugar
- 10 grams cocoa powder
- cappuccino pearls sprinkle, to decorate
1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line muffin tins with cupcake cases and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well between additions.
4. Mix together the cold coffee and milk. Set aside.
5. Sift flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa together in a medium bowl.
6. Add dry and wet ingredients to the egg mixture alternately until combined.
7. Spoon batter, which will be fairly thin, into the cupcake cases until half full.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.9. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
1. Using a food processor, blend butter and 940 grams of icing sugar until combined.
2. Slowly add 8 tbsp of hot coffee until the desired consistency is reached.
3. Transfer 300 grams of the frosting to a small bowl and add the cocoa powder, dissolved in the remaining 1 tbsp hot coffee. Stir in the remaining icing sugar until smooth and the desired consistency.
4. Spoon each frosting into your piping bag on opposite sides so they they will both come out at the same time, giving the multi-coloured effect.
5. Frost cupcakes and decorate with cappuccino pearl sprinkles, if desired.
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: Makes 20
Shetland Black Potato & Fennel Gratin
Looks delicious- how about sprinkling chocolate crumbs on the top? What do you think about that?
I think that’s a fabulous idea!
Yum yes please love anything coffee flavoured x
these sound amazing, i love coffee cream!
I love coffee flavoured things – I think I’ll give these a try 🙂
Do let me know how you get on Diane 🙂 I love coffee flavoured things too!
These look so yummy!
I love coffee and these look delicious!
I made these for me and my chap (just because it was a wet weekend!) and my god – they’re amazing! didn’t have plain flower so went with self-raising and dropped the bi-carb to 1/2 tsp with 0.5 gms salt; only had semi-skimmed milk too… they are amazing! So moist, and cooked in 15 mins too! Icing was more tricky (I didn’t have a bag) so made a much smaller batch using the coffee-chocolate recipe and iced on with two spoons!! WOW! I will be making these again! (My mom doesn’t like coffee cakes, but loved these! couldn’t believe how moist they were!) Alright, enough raving! thanks for sharing the recipe!
ooh yay!! it’s comments like these that encourage me to keep food blogging, thank you! I’m so glad you and your fella liked them 🙂
You just made my day with this recipe! Thanks for posting!
This is my favorite cake/frosting combination!! Love them!
Just mouthwatering…looks delicious!
Thank you! 🙂
Beautiful! Really rich-looking and mouthwatering… I wish I had know it was cupcake week. I would have celebrated too!
Thanks Louise 🙂 I think every week should be cupcake week!!
Wow these look amazing! I love the two toned icing. Thanks for entering Treat Petite!
Thanks Kat! This was my first attempt at two toned icing and I’m pleased how well it turned out. I must experiment more!
Oh wow…how gorgeous do these look! A classic combination and so enticingly presented! Thanks for entering these into this month’s Calendar Cakes…a fab entry 🙂
Thank you Laura, I’m glad you are impressed 🙂
This is a great example of why I love blogs. The cake flavour itsself wouldn’t have made me bake it – it’s a good combination but nothing new. However, your explanation and the brilliant photos really caught my eye. I’ve pinned it and I’ll definitely be coming back to try it out. Thanks for taking the time to blog x
Aw thank you! What a lovely comment. You’ve made me feel like my blogging is worthwhile 😀
They look and sound perfect – a real grownup treat.
Thanks Angela, they certainly are indulgent! I ended up freezing half them, un-iced, or I would have gone on a cupcake eating spree!