mocha cupcakes+espresso buttercream

Bit of silence happening over here in case you haven't noticed. I figured the best way to make it up to you was with cupcakes... that you can't eat. But we're ignoring that last part.

I saw the recipe for mocha cupcakes with espresso buttercream over at Brown Eyed Baker and figured, why not? What caught my eye were the words "mocha" and "espresso", something that gets me every time. If I'm ever talking to you and start losing my focus, adding a quick, out of context "ESPRESSO" will immediately snap me back to attention.

Mocha means a combination of chocolate and coffee. These cupcakes definitely do the job with both strong brewed coffee for part of the liquid, and instant espresso powder for an added boost. I felt the balance between the cocoa flavor and the coffee was really good here, and the cupcakes came out very moist and tender.

The frosting is just a basic butter and confectioners' sugar frosting, enhanced yet again with the addition of espresso power and some vanilla extract. What I noticed was that there wasn't any milk in this recipe, so the texture of the frosting remained firm, but still silky in texture.

This recipe makes exactly one dozen cupcakes, so it's perfect if you want a dessert that yields just enough without spending all day in the kitchen decorating and cleaning up. Because that's really not the point of baking, to clean dishes when you should be eating a cupcake.

chocolate cupcakes

When I have a hankering for cupcakes, it's usually spur-of-the-moment and I want them rather quickly. I'm looking for a moist, tender crumb that can stand alone if I don't feel like icing it with anything, something flavorful and not requiring epic steps to produce.

My go-to recipe is the Baisc (Vegan) Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Chow.com. Making just a dozen and mixing up in only two bowls and no beaters, it doesn't get any simpler than this and is just as fast as using a mix. I did adapt this to be a non-vegan recipe, replacing the soy milk-vinegar mixture with buttermilk, adding an egg, then I used half butter in the frosting recipe. Besides the almond extract, I added two teaspoons of instant coffee to the dry ingredients and you should, too.

The frosting whips up into an airy and incredibly smooth mixture -- don't even think about not using the entire amount of milk called for as it's the reason the texture is so light. Using all the frosting divvied up gives you a generous mountain o' frosting for each cupcake, and brightened with some sprinkles it's impossible to resist. Simply impossible.

End of post.

Couple of Cupcakes

Yesterday I made cupcakes. I used the one-bowl chocolate cupcakes recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I had issues with this recipe in the past and that's why I wanted to try it again. Overall, the results this time were better than before, but there are points that I would like to tweak in the future.

Follow me:

The batter is pretty runny, unlike the batters that are between runny and muffin batter, which I prefer. If you were to pour the batter from a spoon, it would flow like juice opposed to flowing like ribbons, or however it's supposed to flow.

You have to only fill these two-thirds full unless you want it to overflow in a volcano-like mess. I filled these probably a little too much, though it worked out fine because I didn't overfill it to the extent I did in my pre-blog era. This is where I'd tweak it, decreasing the water slightly to make a somewhat thicker batter and to decrease the amount. It was supposed to yield 2 dozen, but I got 26 and enough extra to fill all the cups a little more. I couldn't use another tin since I only have one oven. (In my dream kitchen I want two restaurant-style ovens with gas burners.)

I blurred out the brand name of my toaster oven enough so that I cover any legal troubles.
Just kidding, that was unintentional.

In this picture, you see the baked cupcakes that have risen quite nicely, extending over the holes enough to add character without saying that I'm a horrid baker.

What you are looking at to the left is pretty much self-explanatory -- the cupcakes outside of the tin.

And if you noticed, it's sunken a bit. That's because the recipe says to switch the tins on the top to the bottom rack of the oven halfway through baking. I've never had success doing so, which is why I waited until later on in the baking time, nearish the end. It didn't work. I think my oven is too creaky and "bumps" when I closed the door that resulted in fallen cupcakes. And maybe it's me. I should have left well enough alone since it was baking nicely anyway.

I wanted to really go all the way with these cupcakes, so I made a simple vanilla buttercream frosting (actually, half butter, half Smart Balance shortening). I don't think I added enough vanilla extract because it kind of sort of just tasted sweet. But still good. Since I don't like too-sweet things. It came out really well, smooth and thick.

Does this picture look better?

These are half of the frosted cupcakes. (Frosted sounds better than iced -- I picture trees at Christmastime "frosted" with snow.) I dolloped some frosting in the middle and spread outwards, keeping a mound in the middle and thinning it out a bit at the edges. My aim was to create swirls on top. Don't they look nice? I could have stopped there, but did I? NOOOOOO.

I wanted to make them even prettier by drizzling MELTED CHOCOLATE... on top... OH yeAH!!!! (I'm "yelling" now...)

This is a close-up on an individual cupcake. MY cupcake, the cupcake I would eventually eat. It's pretty, and I like the peak of frosting at the tippy-top that was happened to be perfectly topped with drizzled chocolate. I didn't do that on purpose. If I tried to do so, it would have failed. That's just how I am.

This really reminds me of a ballerina's tutu. That's why I took this picture, and that's why I almost didn't eat it, it was so pretty. But... it occurred to me that the cupcake was DEAD. So I ate it. After this:

After I took the innards shot, that is. Can you see the billowyness of the frosting? And the cupcake was very moist.

My overall thoughts were that the frosting seemed to overpower the cupcake, because when I took a bite all I could taste was the sweetness of the frosting. Maybe I didn't redistribute it properly. Also, when I took a bite of the top edge, it kind of took away from the textural taste because it was between crunchy and soft, but not quite rubbery. Most likely a result of overcooking a bit and accidentally keeping them in the tins too long.

I had fun making these and I'll bake something soon so I can share it with you all again. :)