Mochachino Cupcakes

A rich, dense mocha flavored cupcake, topped with a creamy buttery frosting, and lightly dusted with cocoa powder.

These nifty little cupcakes are like biting into a perfect mochchino! My love for coffee and chocolate came together in this simple cupcake recipe, and the frosting had been left unflavored to mirror the idea of cappuccino foam. The decoration was simply to strengthen this idea more, and if desired the cookies can be replaced by gingerbread on even left out completely.
Since its Christmas, I decided to share this recipe with you!

As you can see from the picture above, the cake is very dense, this simply means, not that it is dry, but that because the mixture is so compact, barely any crumbs if any fall all over the place; this means they would be perfect for a party!

The trick with this recipe is the ingredients have go to be at the right temperature, (room) and also to avoid burnt tops, don't over mix the mixture. The results you should hope to get will be similar to below.

If you mix the mixture correctly you will achieve a nice smooth cupcake top rather that a mushroom top! I have found purely by experience that even though a recipe might say 180`C I often lower it to 160`C or even 140`C and just check its cooked after the set amount of time.

The mixture in this recipe will be extremely think and gooey! perfect for licking the spoon at the end! 

As you can see, this mixture had not been worked to hard and is dense. For this reicipe to work you must not 'worry' the batter, for all you will get is air filled cupcakes. Below you can find the recipe.

   
Ingredients-

    

       For The cakes:

       115g unsalted butter

       100g cocoa powder

       1 heaped tbsp coffee (instant)

       95g self raising flour

       salt (pinch)

       2 eggs (at room temperature)

       100g granulated Sugar

       1 teaspoon vanilla extract

       30g cooking chocolate

       

       For the frosting:

       75g unsalted butter

       175g icing sugar

       1 tbsp milk (if required)

  Method-

  For the cakes:

   

   Line a cupcake baking tray with 12 cupcake holders. pre-heat the oven to 180`c

  Melt the butter and chocolate together in a glass bowl placed on-top of a small saucepan with a little water in it, until smooth. Put aside to cool.

In another bowl, mix the cocoa, flour, coffee and salt together till combined, set aside. In a large bowl whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla extract till well combined. Add the butter chocolate mix and combine. Add half of the flour mixture and mix till thick, add the other half and repeat.

Evenly fill each cupcake holder with mixture, don't be easy on it, the wont rise much. Place in the oven for about 18 mins, or until a knife comes out clean. When they come out of the oven let them cool whilst you make the frosting.

For the frosting:

Beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then sieve in the icing sugar, add the milk if necessary and beat all till its creamy.