Calling All Coffee Lovers

Coffee Cake is Mam's all-time favourite dessert, so last week for Mother's Day, I decided to try something different and whip up a batch of Coffee Cupcakes. I usually use IREL Coffee Essence which you can only buy in Ireland, to flavour coffee cake, but seens as the number of Yummmmyy's international followers has increased greatly over the past few months, I thought that I better try to create a new way of achieving that moreish coffee taste. I decided to experiment and used instant coffee mixed with a tiny amount of boiling water which formed a coffee paste. To my delight, the paste worked perfectly and the cupcakes tasted just as good, if not better than before. 

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE MIX

225g Caster Sugar

225g Butter (softened)

225g Self Raising Flour (sieved)

3 tbsp Instant Coffee

1 tbsp Boiling Water

4 Eggs

FOR THE COFFEE FROSTING

200g Icing Sugar

100g Butter (softened)

3 tbsp Instant Coffee

1 tbsp Boiling Water

Method

FOR THE CAKE MIX

1) Preheat your oven to 180C/ 220F/ Gas Mark 4 and line your muffin/ cupcake tin with bun cases

2) Cream the butter and sugar together in the electric mixer (make sure you allow it to mix until fully combined and lighter in colour)

3) Add in the eggs, one by one and continue to beat

4) When combined, begin to add the sieved flour, again, one spoon at a time - allow the mixture to beat until it is light and smooth 

6) In a cup, mix the 3 tbsp of instant coffee with the 1 tbsp of boiling water and then add it to the bowl and beat again until combined (you can gibe the mix a stronger coffee flavour if you like simply by making more paste and adding it to the mix, but, be careful not to make it too strong)

7) Fill each bun case with roughly one tbsp of the mix and bake for approx 20 mins until the buns are golden brown

Method

FOR THE COFFEE FROSTING

1) Cream the butter and icing sugar together in the electric mixer until smooth and light in colour

2) Add 1-2 tbsps of boiling water and continue to mix

3) Again, in a cup, mix 3 tbsp of instant coffee and approx 1 tbsp of boiling water and then add it to the bowl and continue to mix

4) Decorate the cupcakes as you wish - I piped the coffee frosting, but, you could just as easily use a spoon to spread it on top.