April 2010

For my birthday last year I received Dolce!, a book of Italian desserts.  For some reason, it’s taken me until now to make anything from it.

I chose the Mocha Cake purely because all the ingredients were in the cupboard and I couldn’t be bothered heading down the shop.  In many ways, this cupcake recipe may seem like a variation on my easy chocolate cake.  But sometimes simple is best.

Rather than making a whole cake I opted for cupcakes, because they seem to be far easier to take to work!

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C and, if you’re organised, put your cupcake cases in the muffin tins (this recipe will make 12).

Beat 120g of unsalted butter with 100g of caster sugar, before adding 2 eggs, 100g of self-raising flour, and 3 tbsp of cocoa.  Mix well and add a pinch of salt.

Mix 1 tsp of baking powder in 2 tbsp of milk and beat in, before finishing by mixing in an espresso cup of cooled espresso coffee.

Spoon into the cupcake cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean).

The original recipe actually has you pour the espresso over the batter once it’s in the tin, followed by a sprinkling of cocoa and sugar – this apparently creates a sort of sauce.  However, with the cupcakes I figured incorporating the coffee into the batter was a far better idea.

Once the cupcakes were cool I iced them with a chocolate rum icing – just melt some unsalted butter and mix in icing sugar, cocoa and a generous splash of rum.

All that’s left to do is eat them … chocolate and coffee cupcakes?  Too easy!