- Hey, guys.
Today, we are making cafe mocha cupcakes.
It's one of my favorite little cupcake recipes
because it doesn't take a lot of time and effort,
but it'll give you a lot of look.
They're also really delicious.
You've got this beautiful rich chocolate
cupcake underneath, topped with a light
whipped-creamed espresso-flavored frosting,
decorated with some bittersweet chocolate,
and of course topped with a chocolate-covered espresso bean.
That can't be bad, right?
So good.
Let me show you how quick and easy it comes together.
We are first going to begin with
a half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.
We'll pop that in a large bowl.
And to that, we're gonna add
half a cup of hot boiling water.
Now that's important in order to allow
our cocoa powder to bloom, as they say.
You may have heard this term.
And basically, what that means is it's going
to allow our cocoa powder to develop its richest flavor.
It really brings out the flavor in the chocolate
when you add something hot to it.
Sometimes, people will also do it with coffee,
which is a good way to go.
It's also going to dissolve the cocoa powder, so that
we don't end up with a lot of clumps in our cupcakes.
And into that, we're gonna add one cup of sugar,
half a cup of vegetable oil,
two eggs, and one and a half teaspoons of vanilla.
So you can go ahead and whisk that all up
until everything is really combined.
This is why I love this recipe, there's no need
to drag out any electric mixer for the cake part.
And then in a smaller bowl, we're going
to mix together our dry ingredients.
So you're gonna take three-quarters cup
of all-purpose flour, three-quarters teaspoon of salt,
and a half a teaspoon of baking soda.
So you can whisk that all together until it's all combined,
and then you're gonna take these dry ingredients
and add them slowly to your wet ingredients,
whisking all the while until you have a nice smooth batter.
Then we're gonna take a muffin tin
and line it with some brown papers.
I think it's really nice to have something dark like this
just to sell the whole cafe mocha idea.
I'll leave you a link in the description where I got mine.
Then you're gonna take an ice cream scoop
and fill each well around two-thirds of the way full.
You don't wanna go all the way to the top.
Just a little bit more than halfway.
Then we're gonna bake at 350
for just about 18 to 20 minutes,
just until they are nice and set
and a toothpick comes out clean.
Then you wanna allow these cupcakes to cool completely
before you start to frost them,
otherwise the frosting will just slip off.
Not a good look.
And then to make our frosting, it's really easy.
We are just gonna take one and a half cups of heavy cream
or whipping cream, either one will work,
three tablespoons of powdered sugar,
and one tablespoon of espresso powder.
Now if you haven't seen espresso powder before,
you can find it usually either
in the baking aisle or in the coffee aisle.
It usually comes in a little jar.
You can actually make espresso with it, too.
So if you like to drink espresso, you could try that,
and if you didn't have a machine, it's kind of handy.
I use it a lot for baking.
If you can't find it at your market,
you can also buy it online, I'll leave you a link.
And then we're also gonna add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
So you just wanna whip this up on high
just until you get really nice stiff peaks.
So anytime I'm using whipped cream as a frosting base, I do
like to take it just a little bit further than I normally
would if I was just making traditional whipped cream,
just so that it has some nice structure to it.
And once you're ready to go,
you can transfer that cream mixture into a pastry bag
fitted with your favorite swirly twirly tip.
I really like the 2-D Wilton tip.
I use it for everything, and I think that it
really creates a very elegant nice twirl to it.
I like to give these cupcakes a little bit of height because
I think it does make it a little bit more elegant that way.
And because the frosting is not very overly sweet,
it's not like a heavy butter cream, you can put
a lot on there and it's not gonna feel like too much.
And then as a little finishing touch, I do like to shave
some bittersweet chocolate on the top of each cupcake.
And at this stage, I transfer all the cupcakes
to my cake stand, and then go in and add the
chocolate-covered espresso bean to the top of each one.
Only because the espresso bean's a little bit heavy
and I don't want the mound of frosting to topple
over when I'm moving them to the cake stand,
so I do wait to do that until the final step.
And there you have it, cafe mocha cupcakes.
I love this recipe because that chocolate cake underneath
is so rich and delicious, and mixed with that
espresso-flavored whipped cream frosting,
it is such a winning combination.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think,
and I also hope that you subscribe
for more delicious recipes.
I've got a lot more coming up.
Alright, you guys, I'll see you back here next week.
Bye!
(happy music)