Mocha Brownie Cupcakes

Pretty cupcake, isn’t it?  And that chocolate covered espresso bean adds a nice touch don’t you think? This cupcake is full of some amazing chocolate. We’re going to start out by making the brownie base, so start chopping up that chocolate.    Now butter just makes everything taste better.  Add butter to chocolate and it’s amazing.Melt the butter and chocolate together. While that is melting, in a small bowl combine flour, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt together.  That’s basically all the dry ingredients.In a mixing bowl add sugar.   Mix in the eggs with the sugar until light. Add your melted chocolate and butter mixture plus coffee liqueur.  (I used regular coffee and it worked fine.) Mix it well.  It should look like this. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.Don’t over mix.  Mix until just combined.  Looks like brownie batter right?  Now fill your cupcake liners and bake them up. While the cupcakes are baking gather up your frosting ingredients. Mix it all together until light and fluffy. Then when the cupcakes have cooled go ahead and frost them.  (I have a picture shortage going on.  I apologize for that.)Now after you frost your cupcakes garnish them with chocolate covered espresso beans.  It won’t take too many then you can shove the rest of them into your mouth like I did because they are like potato chips; you can’t eat just one.

Mocha Brownie Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
11 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. espresso powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
½ cup coffee liqueur
For the frosting:
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tbsp. instant coffee granules
2 tsp. hot coffee
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  Combine the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.  Heat until completely melted, stirring until smooth.  Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.  In the meantime combine the flour, espresso powder, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and stir together with a fork to combine.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on medium speed until light.  Stir in the chocolate mixture and the coffee liqueur until well combined.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until combined.  Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full.  Bake 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few crumbs.  Allow to cool in the pans about 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Mix in the confectioners' sugar on low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until smooth and light, about 2 minutes.  Mix in the coffee granules, hot coffee and vanilla extract until completely incorporated.  Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes, and top with chocolate-covered espresso beans if desired.
This recipe was adapted from Annie’s Eats.  I just love her site, so check it out!

Let me know if you try this!  I’d love to hear how they turn out! I made these for the Go Bake Sale, so I never even tried one.  I did hear great things about them though.