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Spiced Mocha Cupcakes – a new recipe!

Posted on  - Last updated:

Categories Autumn, Cupcakes, Recipes

It’s been a while since I’ve been creative in the kitchen and come up with a new recipe!  This last weekend for the Tacoma Harvest Fair, I wanted to create cupcakes using fall flavors, but one that would stay moist for a couple days because I was baking ahead of time.

I knew I definitely wanted to use my moist chocolate cupcake recipe but doctor it with some spices and coffee to bring out all the flavors… and what I came up with is: Spiced Mocha cupcake topped with a Spiced buttercream!  Oh yum! You can see in the picture below how dark the cupcake is.  The key to the color is the dark chocolate cocoa and the dark, strong, bold coffee I used!

Because I had made these for my cupcake demo… I decorated a bunch of them in Halloween, harvest themes… check out all the pictures at the bottom of this post!

JavaCupcake’s “Spiced Mocha Cupcakes topped with Spiced Buttercream“

Makes approx. 28 cupcakes

Cupcakes

½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs at room temperature

1 cup very hot strong/bold coffee

1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp all spice

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line pans with foil or paper liners.
  • Mix oil, sugars, cream and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
  • Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each.
  • Beat on medium for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl.
  • Sift dry ingredients together.
  • Sift them again.  Make sure all the flour and cocoa are thoroughly combined and all clumps are gone and the mixture is very fine.
  • Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in three parts, scraping the sides of the bowl and thoroughly mixing after each.
  • Beat for about 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
  • Add the hot coffee and mix until just blended.  DO NOT BE ALARMED, mixture will be thin. Scrape sides & bottom of the bowl.
  • Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.
  • Bake 15 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees, and bake an additional 5-7 minutes.
  • Do not over bake! Cupcakes will be done when there are air bubbles in the center and it springs back to the touch.
  • Leave in the pan 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 lbs (1 bag) powdered sugar
¼ – ½ cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp all spice

  • In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter.
  • One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar.  Between each cup, add a splash of milk.   Mix until smooth & scrape down the sides after each addition
  • Before the last cup of sugar, add the vanilla.  Mix until smooth.
  • With the last cup of sugar, add the all spice.  Mix until smooth.
  • Add any remaining milk until you get the texture and consistency you want. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
  • Mix on high for 4-5 minutes.