Impromptu Chococino Cupcakes

Picture this......

Me, in my lounge, lazily sipping at my coffee while Harvey plays and makes Preston laugh his cute baby chuckle. Hmmmm.... I could sit like that for hours.

The time ~ 1:15pm.



Just as I start to daydream about my house in the country I remember I have guests coming at 2pm!! My Daddy-kins and Uncle Paul.

(OMG) Get the the house cleaned STAT!! Tidy up the kids mess, do the dishes, make some cakes.

Now the tidying up bit is normal before you have people over, but deciding to make cakes 45mins before they are due to turn up is not quite so normal ~ in fact it's a pretty stupid idea if you want to convey being a domestic goddess with everything clean tidy and under control ~ not a lunatic in a ransacked kitchen, covered in gloop and up to your eyeballs in sprinkles.

Now getting cakes done, and I mean ready to eat, in 45 mins is a hard enough feat (for me) but having a 2 year old wanting to help mix and licking the spoon is less than helpful in a time pressure situation.

Anyhoo.......

I chuck on my pinny (thank you Ruth of Cupcake Challenge 2011) and grab my basics - sugar, butter, s/r flour and baking powder.

I didn't want to do vanilla as it's been done to death in my house and I need a year (or so) off. Chocolate is also one I've done a lot of, but I have coco powder, so I go for that. As I want to fancy it up a bit I decide to add strong coffee to make a Chococino Cupcake.

So deep breath - Ready...Steady.............GO!

Recipe ~ Makes 6 cupcakes
60g caster sugar
60g butter
40g s/r flour
20g coco powder
1 large egg
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp strong coffee (cooled)

1. Preheat over to 180/GM4 and line a muffin tin with 6 cases
2. Cream the butter and sugar
3. Add egg & mix until fully incorperated
4. Mix in the coffee
5. Add flour/baking powder/coco and fold in until just mixed
6. Divide mix evenly between 6 muffin cases
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes
8. When baked, place on cooling rack until completely cool

Frosting
50g butter
200g icing sugar
50g coco powder
strong coffee (cooled)

1. Cream the butter
2. Add icing sugar/coco powder mixture 50g at a time until sandy in texture
3. Add coffee to taste and consistancy required
4. Pipe/blob frosting on as you wish

The cakes will only rise to about 2/3 of the muffin case, which is really nice as the finished cakes are strong and are like little, chocolatey, espresso shots :-)

Apparently it worked as Dad, Uncle P, Harvey and Brad (my hubbs) all said it was yummy ~ RESULT :-)

Luckily for me the old men were late so I had time to clean the kitchen after my baking sesh!

Smiles all round.......

I hope your family enjoy these as much as mine did.

xx Kat xx