Mocha Cupcakes

I'm not going to follow any particular order when choosing which cupcake I want to try...If I'm in the mood to make it, or if I have an occasion to make a certain cupcake, that's what I'll make!

So the first cupcake I tried from "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes" was the Mocha Cupcake. It seemed pretty basic and I already had most of the ingredients. Everything went pretty smoothly until I got to making the icing. I made sure I had all the ingredients before I started, but what I didn't do was read HOW to make it. Martha suggests making a coffee-flavoured seven minute frosting, which she frosts in peaks and tops with a coffee bean. It makes for a really simple yet dramatic effect that I was really looking forward to trying and showing off... The problem was I didn't read the recipe to see what TOOLS I needed...and for seven minute frosting, you need a candy thermometer, which I don't have :(

Luckily, Martha had my back, as she offers alternatives to the icing in this recipe. So my cupcakes were saved by Martha's coffee variation of Swiss meringue buttercream! I didn't have enough unsalted butter, so I substituted for Crisco, and it worked out just fine! I topped it off with a mocha flavoured coffee bean and Voila!

Sayks Rating:

Difficulty: *** (because you have to make so much espresso)

Taste: ****

Appearance: ****

Occasions: morning office meetings, brunch, coffee-tea parties.

Suggestions: make the icing ahead of time so the coffee flavour has time to develop.

Who ate them: My husband brought them to the office where they were devoured in 30 minutes (at 9 am)!