Coffee and walnut cupcakes

What with it being the CCD’s (Caked Crusader’s Da) birthday I thought I’d make something to appeal to his tastes. The CCD eats his fair share of cake but struggles with very sweet things. I tried to find a recipe that had the cuteness of a cupcake but not the usual sweetness. This recipe met the criteria and is quite a ‘grown up’ cupcake!

Here are the cupcakes fresh from the oven (I do like a cupcake with a nice dome to it!)


Regular readers will know that I don’t like coffee but if you do, then I suspect that these little cakes will hit the spot as the aroma of coffee when they were baking was pretty strong. The recipe requires the walnuts to be ground to powder and it was interesting how moist looking this made the finished cupcake. Grind the walnuts as finely as possible; when you do this you will be rewarded with a wonderfully walnutty smell:


Everyone has their influences and here I am paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock. I call this photo: Cupcake, as shot by Hitchcock. How cool is the dramatic lighting (totally unintentional, I should add)?


These are very light, airy cupcakes with big flavours. Even the day after being made they remained soft and squidgy sponges:



Happy birthday CCD and Nunks!


Ingredients:
For the cake:
150g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
3 eggs
150g self raising flour
60g walnuts, ground finely
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 tablespoon boiling water

For the topping:
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon boiling water
90g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g icing sugar
12 walnut halves
Optional: icing sugar for dusting

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/275°F/Gas mark 5.
- Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.
- Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Using a food processor or mini chopper grind the walnuts to fine powder.
- Beat the eggs, flour and ground walnuts into the butter mix until combined.
- Place the instant coffee into a heat proof bowl and stir in the boiling water. Stir until the granules are dissolved. I found that because of the small amount of water, not all the granules dissolved.
- To stop lumps getting into the cupcake mix pass the coffee through a sieve when adding to the cake mix.
- Ensure all ingredients combined, then spoon evenly into the 12 paper cases.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took exactly 20 minutes.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the topping mix the coffee granules and boiling water and ensure thoroughly dissolved. If in doubt, sieve the mix.
- Add the butter to the coffee and beat until smooth.
- Gradually beat in the icing sugar to make a fluffy, smooth icing.
- Spread over the top of each cupcake and top with a walnut half. If you want to, dust each cupcake with icing sugar.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.