Idea behind:
What more can I say? Coffee is one of my favourite things... so why would I not want to create the perfect cupcake from my favourite coffee in the whole wide world... It needs some work though.
The cake:
To replicate the coffee grinds at the bottom of a cup of coffee, I decided to line the papers with a sprinkling of fresh grounds. I made a lot with just grounds, grounds and demerara, just demarara and then with nothing at all. It certainly made a big difference in the overall taste however I need to put them on top of the batter rather than on the bottom, as it made it look like the cake had burnt on the bottom. The grounds and demerara was the best combination as the sugar gave a slight crunch.
For the cake itself, I used the standard recipe but instead of 125ml of milk, I used 75ml of coffee and 50ml of milk. General feelings were that the cake wasn't strong enough again. I think I need to reduce the coffee to a stronger syrup. 75ml to 50ml certainly works very well.
We used Monmouths coffee. I don't think this will be necessary as it was kind of lost - although this may be due to the fact that the coffee wasn't strong enough.
The icing:
First of all, I got a slight curdle in the icing because the coffee was too warm! Cool it down next time!! I did a combination of vanilla buttercream and coffee buttercream but you couldn't tell the difference between the two. Therefore needs to be darker. General concensus was that it was way too sweet! So I think I will try the Donna Hay Italian meringue icing next time. Plus I think the icing looks horrible! So next time I'm going to use the piping bag. Sprinkled with the chocolate is beneficial. Maybe there's also a possibility to get a stencil to make a pattern on top.
All in all - I feel safe to say that the coffee cupcakes won't be a best seller. Mind you, it wasn't *like* a cappuccino... it was more like a milky filtered. Coffee cakes are generally hit and miss anyway.
Notes:
- Produce a coffee syrup.
- Test a new icing.
- Fix the cupcake papers!!!
