Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

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If you like coffee and chocolate you are in for a delight!
These chocolate cupcakes with espresso buttercream are moist, rich and the perfect marriage of flavors.

Chocolate cupcake. Doesn't that bring a smile to your face? Cho-co-oooo-late cupcake. I just had to do it. 🙂

The nice thing about cupcakes they are made in 30 minutes from start to finish, the only kitchen special equipment required is a mixer and a cupcake tin.

One more thing, I just realized I have a chocolate and espresso fascination. Or is it the perfect flavor combination and I just can't get enough of it? They are amazing!

Ok, on to making cupcakes....

Jump to:

• Pro Tricks
• Beginner Frosting Tips
• Frosting Steps
• Recipe

Pro Tricks

These chocolate cupcakes are so rich and so moist by design. To achieve this, I used my three favorite secrets for baking anything thing chocolate: espresso powder, hot liquid, and vegetable oil. I use these three secrets every time I bake a chocolate cake or cupcake, and every time they come out perfect!

Trick One: Add a little bit of espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor. I know what you're thinking, we're making espresso buttercream so is that really a secret? Yes! It is the secret to achieving a rich chocolate flavor in baked goods. Not an espresso flavor, but chocolate. Espresso powder adds a deep and complex flavor that enhances the chocolate flavor but does not taste like espresso (or coffee).

Trick Two: Two minutes before placing the batter in the oven, add boiling water. When hot water is stirred well into the chocolate batter and dissolves any cocoa powder clumps. During this time, the liquid thickens and releases flavor particles within the powder. This is called "blooming". This technique only works with cocoa powder and will take your chocolate cupcakes to the next level. (Pinky swear!)

Trick Three: Vegetable oil, yep, you need it for a super moist cupcake. As a bit of a food snob, it's a really hard thing for me to buy. However, vegetable oil is a must for a moist cupcake. I actually feel better now, like I said that out loud better.

Beginner Frosting Tips

Let me start by saying I am not an expert on frosting. In fact, far from it. For most of my life, I just scrapped frosting off because I did not like it. However once I tasted homemade frosting, I liked it so much better. While I like frosting, turns out I am really bad at using a pasty bag. To improve my skills, I watched many, many videos and practiced before I took these pictures. Below are the lessons I learned to get to this point. If you are needing help read along.

Also, when I designed the recipe I decided on a mild espresso flavor. I wanted the frosting to compliment the rich chocolate cupcake and not detract from it. If you prefer a stronger flavor, just add more espresso powder.

For these cupcakes I went for a dramatic look. To achieve this I did the following:

• Used a frosting that was medium stiffness
  
• Piped the frosting at a 1:1 ratio. 1 part cupcake to the equal part frosting.
  
• For the tip, I used a large flower drop tip, similar to a Wilton 2D tip.
  
• I also used a reusable pastry bag.
  
  

Frosting Steps

1. Start with placing the tip inside the piping bag (yeah, really, I did know that when I first used a piping bag).
   
   • If you're using a coupler, place the coupler base inside the piping bag, place the tip on the outside of the bag and screw the ring into place.
     
2. Place the unfilled bag into a tall drinking glass or a jar. Then fold the top of the piping bag around the glass and fill the base with frosting.
   
3. Push the icing all the way down, work any air bubbles out and twist the bag closed. This step purges the air from the bag and forces the frosting into the tip.
   
4. Place your dominant hand around the top of the bag. Use this hand to squeeze the frosting. Because the frosting is stiff you might need two hands to squeeze the frosting out. However only squeeze the bag from the top. Squeezing from another place could result in air bubbles.
   
5. Because we are going to use the flower tip, use a 90-degree angle, meaning hold the bag straight up.
   
6. Using your dominant hand from the top of the bag, squeeze a dollop of frosting in the center of the cupcake. Without breaking the stroke, move the frosting bag to the outside of the dollop and frost the perimeter of the dollop.
   
7. Using a continuous movement, continue to pipe in a circle slightly inward. Continue piping, moving inward with each rotation for three full rotations. Once you reach the tip, place a small dollop to close the circle. Then release the pressure and pull the bag away.
   
   For additional resources, I recommend visiting the Wilton website. This video really helped me learn techniques and improve my piping skills.
   
   

Recipe