Mocha Cupcakes

by Pratiksha - Thursday, May 28, 2015

It has been over a year and a half since my last post. Not much has changed. Except, I now find myself on the threshold of being a law graduate. A month from now, a piece of paper we call a mark sheet is going to pull me out of my current state of comfort and throw me out into the proverbial big bad world. To say I'm terrified would be an understatement. I think I know what to expect but that's not enough. I feel so unprepared, it's unnerving. Hence, I've decided to curl right back up into my comfort zone and enjoy it while it lasts.

Contrary to what one might think, the Baking Bug never left; the Procrastination Parasite, however, took over. I'm back and this time around I mean it. No, seriously! Believe me! You'll see, I promise! I'm chalking out a plan for myself, a bucket list, if you may. Things I plan to accomplish by December 2015. More on that in a later post. For now, we'll talk about these mocha cupcakes.

Chocolate marries coffee and this holy union produces a delightful burst of flavour! What's not to like? The two flavours compliment each other beautifully and this combination also is one of my go to flavours. I love me some chocolate in my coffee and hints of coffee in my chocolate. It's a classic, really. I made these about a week and a half ago (refer to paragraph 2, line 1) and just this morning, when I got down to editing the photographs (which eventually becomes necessary), a friend called and said she was about to make these very cupcakes! Talk about happy coincidences! You'll find a picture of her creation at the end of the post.

I've adapted this recipe from Pooja Dhingra's The Big Book of Treats. If you haven't got yourself a copy already, you must. I highly recommend it. Some really beautiful recipes there and of course, macarons!!

MOCHA CUPCAKES

Adapted from: The Big Book of Treats

Ingredients

For the Mocha Cupcakes:

100 g butter

100 g brown sugar

2 eggs

80 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

25 g cocoa powder

50 ml milk

3.5 tsp instant coffee

For the Chocolate Ganache:

375 g dark chocolate (broken into pieces)

155 ml cream

Method

Line cupcake moulds with liners and keep ready.
Dissolve the instant coffee powder in warmed milk and set aside.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and set aside. This forms the dry ingredients.
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add the eggs to the butter one at a time and whisk between each addition.
Add in the coffee dissolved in milk and whisk until thoroughly combined. If the batter appears split at this point, keep whisking, it will come together.
With the help of a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients until just incorporated and no flour pockets or white streaks remain.
Scoop batter by the tablespoonful into the prepared liners.
Bake at 175C for 20 minutes (the recipe says 15, mine took a little longer) or until a toothpick, when inserted in the centre of the cake, comes out clean
For the chocolate ganache, place the chocolate pieces in a bowl.
Heat the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a couple minutes.
Whisk the chocolate and cream together until combined and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until the ganache is firm enough to hold it's shape.

Frosting the cupcakes:

Transfer the cooled ganache into a piping bag fitted with a piping tip (I used Wilton 1M).
To pipe rosettes, hold the piping bag perpendicular to the centre of the cupcake and apply pressure on the piping bag to release a small amount of ganache.
Continue applying pressure and move in a spiral around the centre and continue till the whole surface is covered. Release pressure on the piping bag and pull the tip away.
Alternatively, you can just spread some ganache over the cupcake with the help of a spatula or a butter knife or the back of a spoon. You may also garnish it with a couple coffee beans dipped in chocolate.