Either of those could be the name of this post, or the cupcakes I'm writing about.
What's up, internet? Long time no see! Sorry about that, I've been super duper busy lately- but don't worry, I'm back from hiatus... and I brought cupcakes! Woo! Also, since I've been away so long, there are lots of pictures in this post to make up for it.
So a friend of mine asked me to make some cupcakes for his sister-in-law, the only specifics were something w/coffee and chocolate. Well, I can handle that- two of my most favorite things in the world, sure.
I had something in mind, so I decided to look through a bunch of recipes and kind of put together the pieces I wanted, added some things, and this is what I ended up with (and yes, I'm sharing it w/you because I'm such a nice girl):
*oh, and before we get started- this recipe makes about 32 cupcakes, so if you only need a dozen or so, you'll want to cut it in half*
Devil's food cupcakes w/French roast coffee
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons (a stick and a half) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (my 3/4 looked more like a whole cup, but who's counting?)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups strong hot brewed coffee (preferably French roast) *I used allegro super dark french roast
- 1/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a standing mixer, beat butter at medium speed until smooth, or about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and slowly add the sugar. Continue beating until light and smooth, or about 4 minutes. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add cocoa powder and vanilla and beat at medium speed for 1 minute more. (Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl again, if needed.) With the mixer running at medium-low speed, add your eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Heat the milk just till very hot (not boiling) in either a small saucepan on the stove, or in a microwave safe dish in the microwave for about 45 to 60 seconds. Combine the hot coffee and milk together in a large measuring cup, or cereal sized bowl.
With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture, about a 1/4 cup at a time. Carefully pour the hot liquid into the batter, let mix for about 30 seconds, then stop mixer.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and,
using a large rubber spatula, finish combining the batter until smooth.
Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
Yay, cupcakes! They turned out awesome. Picking them up, they feel like they're really light, but they taste really rich and chocolately, and fluffy, and lovely. Oh and there's a picture of the inside as I tried it. :) drooool...
Onto frosting! Ok, so I totally just made up the frosting, it's not from a recipe or anything... but I'll totally give you a run down of what I used and how I did it. You don't have to follow it to the T, frosting has a lot more room for screwing around with than cake does.
The frosting ended up more like a cross between a glaze and a mousse (a glousse? yes, please) than a regular butter cream, but I think it actually suits the cupcake better anyway. Much like the cake itself, it looks and feels nice and light and airy, but tastes super rich and decadent, and such.
French Roast Chocolate Frosting
- 4 tablespoons (half a stick) room temperature butter
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar, depending on taste and how thick or thin you want the frosting
- 1/4 cup hot brewed coffee (same as the coffee for the cake)
- 3-5 tablespoons cocoa powder, depending on how chocolatey or super chocolately you want your frosting
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a stand mixer start out by mixing/beating the butter for about a minute. The order you put in all the other ingredients doesn't matter all that much as long as you start out by creaming the butter w/about 1/4 cup of the powdered sugar. Then just make sure to slowly add the rest of the ingredients gradually while still mixing on low to medium speed until the frosting is well blended,smooth,
and fluffy.And... Voila!
The cupcake + frosting combo ended up being seriously delicious. I added a little coffee
bean to the top of each one for decoration, and extra coffee aroma... mmmm.
I think these ended up being one of my most favorite cupcake flavors, and that's saying something. I wouldn't be upset if somebody made these for me... Just saying... Well hopefully you don't feel so neglected now, I promise I'm still around. If you try these out, I'd love to see them/hear how they turned out for you. Enjoy!
