Mocha Cupcakes

Coffee-spiked chocolate sponge with a smooth espresso buttercream.

Prep Time25 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time45 mins
Yield12 cupcakes
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Before You Start

Coffee doesn't make chocolate taste like coffee, it makes chocolate taste more like chocolate. Here it does both jobs, deepening the sponge and flavouring the buttercream outright. Use hot coffee to bloom the cocoa and the difference is obvious.

Instructions

0 of 6 done

  1. Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F and line a 12-hole tin. Whisk the cocoa with the hot coffee until it's a smooth paste and leave it to cool for 5 minutes.

  2. Whisk in the sugar, oil, eggs and buttermilk. The batter will be very loose, more like a pourable sauce than a cake mix.

  3. Fold in the flour, baking soda and salt until just combined. A few lumps are better than an overworked batter.

  4. Pour into the cases, no more than two thirds full since this one rises a lot, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

  5. Cool completely. Beat the butter for 4 minutes until pale, then add the powdered sugar in two goes.

  6. Dissolve the espresso powder in 2 teaspoons of hot water, cool it slightly, and beat it into the buttercream. Pipe onto the cold cupcakes.

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💡 Baker's tips

  • Dissolve espresso powder before it goes in. Dry granules stay gritty in buttercream and you'll feel every one.
  • The batter is meant to be thin. Adding flour to thicken it gives you a dry, tight sponge.

🔀 Make it your own

  • Push a chocolate-covered coffee bean into each frosting swirl, or dust with cocoa for a tiramisu look.
  • Use decaf coffee if you're baking for the evening. The flavour is the same, since it's the roast you taste, not the caffeine.

📦 Storing & freezing

Airtight at room temperature for 3 days. The sponge stays moist because of the oil, so these keep better than butter-based cupcakes.

❓ Frequently asked

How many grams is a cup of brewed coffee?

About 237 g per US cup, essentially the same as water. So the ½ cup here is roughly 118 g, or 120 ml.

Can I taste the coffee in the sponge?

Barely. Half a cup in the whole batch mostly reads as a deeper, darker chocolate. The buttercream is where the actual coffee flavour lives.

Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.

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