Coffee on coffee: coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream

I like coffee flavoured things, coffee frosting, coffee lollies, but not coffee itself. It's like when I was 8, I didn't like to eat raw tomatoes, but I loved tomato sauce. Note: tomato sauce is what Australians use for the word ketchup. I know it might be obvious, but I went to McDs in San Francisco on the first day of my Californian trip in '08, and I asked for tomato sauce, and the cashier looked at me, flabbergasted and simply responded "We only have ketchup."

 I absolutely despise coffee at this age. I find it utterly bitter and gross.  My friends try to convince me, saying "Just add sugar!" Uh, I might as well just add 10 tablespoons of sugar to make it sweet. I was even daring to try some 'good at-home coffee', with the Nespresso coffee machine we have at home. Yes, it's supposed to be 3x better than the instant Nescafe whatever thing, but after one mere sip, I nearly choked and spat it out. I'm positive in a few years time though, I will be addicted to coffee, taking double shots for uni exams. But for now, I'm perfectly fine with hot chocolate.

I love coffee cake, especially with a good coffee buttercream. And this is the best coffee buttercream ever. I'm not even kidding. I usually prefer cream cheese over buttercream, but oh my goodness. The cakes were really good, a nice suggestion for these is to put some chopped walnuts in the batter, or grinding up some walnuts and sprinkling on top of the buttercream.

I was a little worried that there would be too much coffee in this batter, but I should never doubt Martha Stewart! Do you basically live on coffee? I try to get my caffeine fix by green tea, but that normally wears off after 4 hours :(

I brought these for my neighbours' potluck (3 families including mine). I chose to make coffee cupcakes, because I didn't want to bring anything too chocolatey or sweet, since I know that the adults wouldn't particularly enjoy anything that is made for a chocoholic. I had such a lovely time at the potluck, the parents chatting about us, children, like hearing my mum speak in Cantonese "She says that I stalk her blog but I have to because I have to make sure of what she writes!", while I talk to my neighbours who are around my own age (lol Jane if you ever read this) about driving and high school teachers.

I am so glad to have such great neighbours, they are quite literally the nicest people I've ever met. I actually don't think you could get any nicer than that. I've been having a really lovely Easter weekend. Hope you an Easter weekend filled with lots of chocolate eggs!

Coffee cupcakes
Yields 12-14 cupcakes
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons instant-espresso powder
1/4 cup milk
1 stick (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Sift flour, and combine baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour water over espresso powder and let it cool. Combine espresso with the milk.
3. Beat the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth, using a mixer or by hand. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the espresso milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
4. Fill muffin liners three-quarters full with the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centres come out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Coffee buttercream

* I would double this recipe. I nearly ran out after using just one quantity of this.

Ingredients
120 g (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
1 and 1/2 icing sugar, sifted *
3 tbsp instant coffee mixed with 3 tablespoons of boiling water *
2 tsp vanilla extract

* I made a double batch of this, but only used about 1 and 1/4 cup icing sugar. I usually don't put the quantity of icing sugar that is called in normal butter cream or cream cheese frosting recipes.
* Depending on how much coffee flavour you want, I found that 5-6 tablespoons of the coffee mixture (instant coffee mixed with boiling water) was enough. Taste along as you go.

Method
1. Beat butter and instant coffee mixture with an electric mixer, for about 2 minutes on  medium speed.
2. Reduce speed and add icing sugar, 1/2 cup at a time
3. Beat well after each addition and add vanilla.

I used Wilton 1M to pipe roses.

Adapted from Martha Stewart