Coffee Cupcakes

Close your eyes for a minute and just imagine what your house would smell like if you were baking cupcakes and brewing a fresh pot of coffee at the same time.

Now imagine that amazing aroma filling your house and only having to do one of those things.  These coffee cupcakes will fill your kitchen with the most amazing SMELL and the TASTE just as incredible. 

The idea for a coffee cupcake was the brainchild of sweetasacookie.com.  I changed her recipe up a little bit and made it my own (with decaf coffee of course) and the results were amazing.  This cupcake is comfort food at it's finest.

Who says you have to drink your coffee?  I prefer to EAT my coffee - complete with a sweet swirl of cream on top.

Coffee Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup strong coffee, chilled

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In the bowl of your stand mixer combine butter and sugar until fluffy.

Once fluffy mix in eggs one at a time.  Mix in vanilla.

In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.














With the mixer on low add in 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/8 cup of coffee, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the rest of the coffee, and the rest of the flour mixture.

 
Fill 12 cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full with the batter.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.

Make a batch of vanilla buttercream.  Stir in 1-2 teaspoons ground expresso powder.

Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

 Ciao!

Caramel Banana Cupcakes

I have an ongoing list of new cupcake flavors that I intend on baking, on my refrigerator .  (Doesn't everybody?)

I am constantly pulling recipes from websites, from cookbooks, blogs and magazines and I found that the best way to organize them (and remember them) was to start a list and post it on the refrigerator door.  That way, when it's time to bake cupcakes - I've got instant inspiration.  (By the way, this strategy works for dinner ideas too.)

Some of my favorite cupcake recipes have come from annies-eats.com.  She has a way of pulling flavors together that I never would have even thought about combining into a cupcake.

This caramel banana cupcake is adapted from her recipe and I hope that even if the flavor combination doesn't appeal to you - the pictures will draw you in for a closer look.

These cupcakes really are the incredible.  A perfect little treat for a cool Fall day. 

Banana Caramel Cupcakes

2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2½ cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana

Caramel buttercream

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

 
Mix in the mashed banana until well combined.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium low and add in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

 
With the mixer on low speed alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing only until just incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared cupcake pan and bake 25 minutes at 350.  (For jumbo cupcakes.)  Cool on wire racks.

Frost with caramel buttercream and drizzle with caramel sauce.

Ciao!