I’ve found that coffee (much like bacon) has a tendency to dramatically enhance whatever food you combine it with. I kept this in mind when I was asked to find a cupcake recipe for this weekend. The result of my search? Double Espresso Chocolate Cupcakes. These bad boys are made with espresso in both the cupcake and the frosting and to make things simpler, I’ll be dividing the recipe into two parts.
Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 4oz of Espresso
- 1/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup of Softened Butter
- 1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs at Room Temperature
- 1 2/3 Cups of Cake Flour
- 1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
- ¼ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
- ¼ Teaspoon of Salt
- ½ cup of Sour Cream
Directions
- To start things off you’ll want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get your muffin cups nice and lined.
- Mix together your espresso with your cocoa powder and vanilla. When you’re finished, set the mixture aside as it will need to cool.
- In a separate bowl cream together your butter and sugar until smooth, once you have, add in your eggs one at a time, mixing each in thoroughly.
- Finally, in a third bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Once done, this is where things get a little tricky because you don’t want to mix everything together at once. Take about a third of your flour mixture and about half of your sour cream and blend them together with your eggs, sugar, and butter. You’ll want to add more flour and sour cream in the same proportions.
- Blend in the remainder of your flour mixture (you’ll be out of sour cream at this point). The last bit you’ll add to this mixture is the espresso you mixed with the vanilla and cocoa, beat it in thoroughly.
- Pour your batter into your muffin cups, filling them about two thirds of the way full and bake them for 16-18 minutes. A good way to tell if your cupcakes are done is to stick them with a toothpick. If you can pull it out clean (no batter is sticking to it) you’ll know that they’re done baking.
So you’ve finished you delicious cupcakes, phew! Well, we’re not quite done yet, cupcakes without frosting are kind of like crawfish nuggets without barbecue sauce! It’s unthinkable! So now we’ll tackle making some Mocha Frosting:
Frosting
Ingredients
- 10 Tablespoons of Softened Butter
- 1 Shot of Espresso (1.5oz in this case)
- ½ Tablespoon of Cocoa Powder
- 3 to 4 Cups of Confectionary Sugar
Directions
While you kitchen fills with the aroma of cooling cupcakes you’ll want to get a bowl out and an electric mixer.
- Start by whipping your butter until it’s nice and fluffy with your mixer. Add your cocoa powder so that it’s mixed in completely.
- Next you’ll whip in your espresso. When you add your sugar, you’ll want to do so gradually as the consistency of the frosting will vary based on how much you use.
- When you’ve got your frosting the way you like it, you’ll want to refrigerate it for about 10 minutes before spreading it over your cupcakes. Make sure that they’re at least cooled to room temperature before you do though!
Garnish however you like and enjoy!