What To Do With Leftover Coffee, Part 1: Mocha Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting

The other day, we made up a larger than normal pot of coffee, thinking for sure we'd drink it all after staying up later than we should and getting woken up early by Jaxson. We didn't finish it, but instead of just tossing it, I looked up recipes for using up brewed coffee and found a delicious sounding one that would also satisfy my chocolate craving - perfect!

So I gave it a try. It was ridiculously easy and I was able to make them in time for Adrian to bring some to work for the manager's meeting. As usual, my presentation was lacking, but they tasted really good!

Recipe:

For the cupcakes:

1 1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled

1 1/2 tsp espresso powder

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

For the icing:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350 and dissolve the espresso powered in the brewed coffee. Cream together the butter and sugars. Add the egg, beat. Combine the milk, coffee and vanilla in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another. Add to the butter mixture slowly, alternating so you finish with the dry ingredients. Divide the batter evenly in a lined 12-cupcake pan. Bake for 17-20 minutes. To make the icing, beat the butter until it's fluffy. Add the sugar slowly, fully incorporating it before each addition. Dissolve the espresso powered in the vanilla and add.

Source: Brown Eyed Baker

Yum!

I made a couple changes to the recipe. First of all, I added chocolate chips to the cupcakes, and I didn't use as much espresso powder as it calls for, because I didn't like the taste last time I used it, for the Pecan Coffee Toffee Cake. For the same reason, I used about 2 tbsp of coffee in the icing instead of espresso powder. This, unfortunately, really changed the consistency of it, so I also added about 2 tbsp of cream cheese to thicken it up. On top of that, I only used about 1 ½ cups of icing sugar, because I felt it was sweet enough at that point and I'm not a fan of really sweet icing.

Despite the change in consistency of the icing, and therefore my inability to make it look nice on the cupcake (yes, it's all the icing's fault, not mine!), they were great!

If you don't have a piping bad, a simple trick is to put your icing in a ziplock bag and then cut one of the bottom corners off.

Voila!

I plan on experimenting with more recipes like this whenever I have leftover coffee!