Cappuccino Cupcakes

When it comes to the kitchen, most people seem to fall into one of two camps: you’re either a cook or a baker. It’s rare that someone can do both, and do both well. I, for one, am no baker (cook may also be debatable). Aside from the fact that I’m not a big sweet tooth, I seem to ruin every pie, cake and cookie I ever try to make. Unfortunately, fried chicken doesn’t quite say “I love you” like a basket of heart-shaped cookies—both in theory and literally… it’d be pretty tricky to write “I love you” in hot sauce the way you would with icing— so for Valentine’s Day this year, I had to get creative. I wanted something sweet, something that could be considered remotely romantic, and something that even I, baking-impaired, non-sweet tooth, could make and enjoy. Oh, and apparently, it had to also contain a ridiculous amount of butter (Caution: this recipe is NOT low-cal). So what did I come up with? Cappuccino Cupcakes, of course.

Here’s what you need:

FOR THE CAKE:

2 cups Flour

2 cups Sugar

¼ teaspoons Salt

2 sticks Butter

3 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Crystals

½ cup Buttermilk

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Vanilla

FOR THE ICING:

1½ sticks Butter

1 pound Powdered Sugar

2 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Crystals

¼ teaspoons Salt

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

To start, dissolve instant coffee in 1 cup of boiling water. Meanwhile, melt your butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Add your coffee to the butter. Stir, bring to a boil and then remove from heat. In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour and salt. Pour coffee/butter mixture into flour mixture. Gently stir, mixing together while the coffee/butter mixture is cooled by the flour (you don’t want the eggs to scramble when you add them next).

In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, baking soda & vanilla. Whisk together. Add to your coffee/butter/flour mixture, stirring slowly. Rachael Ray taught me that the best way to stir anything to make sure it gets totally combined is to do a figure-8 motion with your spoon. Works like a charm. Once everything is mixed well, pour into a cupcake pan that has been buttered and floured. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

While your cupcakes are baking, you can go ahead and make the icing. Because we obviously haven’t used enough butter yet, throw another stick and a half into a large bowl. Make sure your butter is very soft (room temperature). You may even want to try leaving it out over night. It will make this process much easier. Add powdered sugar, coffee crystals, salt and a few tbsp. of your cream. Beat on high. If you have a stand mixer, this is probably much easier to do. I, in my amateur kitchen, am stuck with only a hand mixer, so this process took quite a while. BUT… you can do it with just a stand mixer, so don’t worry if that’s all you have. Slowly add in more cream until the icing is perfectly fluffly and to your desired consistency. For me this happened at about half a cup.

Once your cupcakes have cooked and cooled (at least 30 minutes), you can begin icing them. As you can see, I didn’t waste any time getting fancy here. I simply plopped a blob of icing on each cupcake and attempted to smooth it out with a butter knife. If you’d prefer to make something a little more aesthetically pleasing, put your icing into a gallon-sized ziplock baggy and cut off the corner. You can use this like a pastry bag and distribute your icing in perfect little designs of your choice. Either way, it’s all going to taste the same and let me tell you: this is THE BEST cupcake I’ve ever had in my life. It is so unbelievably moist (OK, I guess it’s kind of believable considering how much butter is in it) and the coffee flavor is such an unexpected, but welcome surprise. These almost make me want to start baking… almost.

{Recipe inspired by the Pioneer Woman}