Mocha Cupcakes: Chocolate and Coffee Join Forces (Gluten Free; Dairy Free Option)

Greetings from the UK!

I'm currently on holiday visiting relatives in Kent, so my recipes will be few and far between. My cousin has a fantastic new kitchen which is great to cook in... so I'll probably be experimenting a bit while I'm here...

Looking for a cutesy cupcake project? Look no further! I decided to make some of these little lovelies for a film night I was having at mine. I needed to stay up all night to be at a gig which started at 2:30am (it was for a worthy cause), so I made some snacks for the journey. I actually didn't last: I had to go to bed around 11:30pm. So, behold the mocha cupcakes!

It was actually last week that this happened, but I didn't get around to writing this post until now: things have been busy getting ready to go abroad, going to visit friends in Roscommon, and performing midnight gigs.

I was wandering through Tiger -- which is essentially a slightly posher and more Scandinavian discount shop -- and found these lovely dark chocolate 'coffee beans'. Originally, I thought they were chocolate coated coffee beans, which are the business, but they weren't: they were coffee infused 52% dark chocolate shaped in little bean shapes. And in fairness I think that's better.

I've also been practising my icing swirl technique recently, and felt like a bit of an eejit: I never really realised that to make tall icing swirls, you need to pipe a dollop in the centre of the cake, and swirl around it. Obvious when you think about it... but it had never occurred to me to do it like that.

To make these, I used my go to light and fluffy sponge cake mixture, as opposed to the slightly denser cake mixture I use for layer cakes. I replaced the cornflour with cocoa powder to make the cakes chocolate flavoured, and I also used gluten free plain flour instead of spelt flour. They worked out really well! Dare I say, that recipe works better with gluten free flour than with spelt or wheat flour. 

I then made some buttercream, using strong espresso to taste, then adjusting the consistency -- if needed -- with some milk. Swirling on the icing using a closed star nozzle, I topped it off with a coffee bean chocolate.

I think I might make some when my cousins come over for dinner on Thursday, if they're fans of coffee and chocolate.