Iron Cupcake Earth: Coffee

This month's Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge has been pretty hard for me. See, I love coffee and normally have two cups a day. The problem is though, that since becoming pregnant I don't like coffee anymore! It's really crazy. Through all my three pregnancies I have had at least one strong food aversion with each one - 1) eggs; 2) pepperoni; 3) coffee.  But since I didn't enter last month's Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge, I tried to overcome my coffee aversion to make a hazelnut mocha cupcake.

The cupcake is a mocha cupcake, made with strong coffee and a scattering of ground coffee.  It is filled with straight Nutella.  The frosting is my Nutella coffee frosting that has been featured at Cupcakes Take The Cake.  The cupcake is finished off with a hazelnut, dipped in chocolate by my own self.

Do these taste like a hazelnut mocha?  They do.  A very rich hazelnut mocha!  The Nutella filling may have been a bit much.  The coffee taste isn't very strong in the cupcake, and you cannot feel the crunchiness of the ground coffee.  The strongest coffee taste comes from the frosting, which smells absolutely gorgeous.  The cupcake itself is just a teensy bit dry, but very chocolatey.

Our February ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270
• as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

As an added bonus for February, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in a variety of cupcaking supplies, http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers,http://www.1800flowers.com.

Now, on to the recipes.

Mocha Cupcakes
makes 12

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup cold brewed coffee

1/2 cup canola oil

3 teaspoons cider vinegar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground coffee

Method:

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, coffee, oil, vinegar and vanilla until well blended. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into coffee mixture until blended.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool. 

Nutella Coffee Frosting
makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tablespoons Nutella
3 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon milk with 1 teaspoon instant coffee and stir until coffee is dissolved.  It may help to dissolve the coffee if you warm the milk in the microwave, just be sure to cool it off afterwards in the fridge before adding to the frosting.

In a separate bowl, combine butter, Nutella, powdered sugar, vanilla, and the 2 tablespoons coffee-milk mixture.  Mix well with electric mixer, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable/pipeable frosting.

Updated the next day: I just had one of these cupcakes without the Nutella filling and I enjoyed it much more.  The Nutella filling was just a bit too much for me.  I'd recommend that if you make these to not fill them with Nutella, but ultimately that choice is up to you!  :)