When I found out a dear friend of mine was leaving the office I work I knew exactly what her leaving cake needed to involve. Aside from a chilled prosecco there is only one drink you will find her with in her hand – an Espresso Martini. And so was born the Espresso Martini cupcake.
Obviously after a cheeky one to make sure I was familiar with all the flavours, I decided to make the topping a cream cheese frosting to get that softness and the cupcake needed a little, but not too much, cocoa powder to make the rich and the correct colour. They also had to have the roasted beans, which I have also explained how to make. If you want to you could also coat the beans in chocolate, but I like them as crunchy and bitter as they are.
I have also made sure that the vodka element isn’t ignored and each cake has been brushed with neat vodka – feel free to leave this out if it’s a bit too boozy for you or kids will be eating the cupcakes too.
This makes 24 English cupcake or bun size cakes and about 12 of the deeper more muffin sized cases. The deeper ones will also take a little longer to cook so give them another five minutes.
Espresso Martini Cupcakes
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- 175g soft butter/margarine
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 175g self-raising flour
- 15g cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons Kahlua
- 2 teaspoons dried coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling
- for the frosting:
- 400g full-fat cream cheese
- 100g very soft butter
- 300g icing sugar
- 3 tablespoons Kahlua
- Also:
- About 4 tablespoons of vodka
- for the coffee beans:
- small handful of coffee beans
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 180deg.
- Step 2 Make the cakes by whisking the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs and whisk again. Mix the cocoa and flour together and add, whisk in. Finally add the Kahlua and coffee. Whisk until thoroughly mixed and divide into the cupcake cases.
- Step 3 Bake for 15mins or until the cake springs back and a skewer comes out clean.
- Step 4 Allow to cool on a cooling rack for 5mins before brushing vodka over the top of the cakes with a pastry brush. Brush all of them once then return to the beginning to brush them a second time. They don’t need to be saturated in vodka!
- Step 5 To make the frosting beat the cream cheese and butter together until well combined.
- Step 6 Add the icing sugar and beat for a couple of minutes until very well combined. Add the Kahlua and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Step 7 To make the coffee beans, spread on a baking tray and place in a 150deg oven for 10mins.
- Step 8 To assemble pipe or smooth the frosting onto the cakes and garnish with a couple of coffee beans.
