Coffee Cupcakes with Smooth Cream Frosting
·Wet ingredients
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Beat the softened butter with the sugar and eggs using a mixer. You'll get a beautifully creamy, fluffy yellow mixture that everyone at home loves to sneak a lick of.
Dry ingredients
In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients – flour, salt and baking powder. It's important to mix them thoroughly so the baking powder is evenly distributed through the batter.
Combine everything
Mix the dry ingredients into the yellow butter base, then add the lukewarm strong coffee and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly again, and right at the end, stir in about two to three teaspoons of ground vanilla coffee. It not only adds flavour and aroma but also looks lovely in the batter.
Fill the liners
Fill the paper liners, set inside a metal muffin tin, about 3/4 full with batter. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Let cool
Let the baked cupcake bases cool completely, then prepare the frosting. It's quite sweet, but that's just how this type of dessert usually is. Just don't overindulge – stick to one or two cupcakes and you'll be happy.
Frosting
Whip the softened butter with the sugar and strong coffee, along with the seeds from one vanilla pod and some ground coffee. Chill in the fridge for a while.
Decorating
Fill a piping bag with the frosting and pipe it onto the cooled cupcakes. Finish by decorating the top with a chocolate coffee bean and chocolate shavings.
