Mocha Marble Birthday Cupcakes!

Out of everything I bake, I’m probably most known (by my friends and family, at least) for my cupcakes. I bake them a lot. I’m actually shocked that this is the first cupcake recipe I have on the blog. I’ve been seriously slacking in the cupcake department and for that, I apologize.

It was my best friend Krystyn’s birthday this weekend. Naturally, I offered to make cupcakes and when I asked her what kind she wanted, she replied with, “Vanilla!!! Or espresso ;)” (that is a direct quote).

I pondered the possibilities for a bit and finally decided on marble cupcakes, to have the best of both the vanilla and espresso worlds. I topped them off with a vanilla buttercream as she’s also a huge sucker for anything “vanilla or buttercreamy goodness” (also a direct quote). Don’t you just love her already?

Clearly, we are friends for a reason.

Anyways, I sifted through my stack of cupcake cookbooks and decided to make a variation of the marble cupcakes in Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book. And they turned out beautifully.

P.S. If you’re in the market for a cupcake book, I definitely suggest investing in Martha’s. It’s my fav. And Krystyn is actually the one who purchased it for me for MY birthday last year. See? Meant to be best friends.

P.P.S. Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman is also an amazing book. Second favourite, for sure.

Mocha Marble Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream
(Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Marble Cupcake recipe)

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1¾ cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/4 cup boiling water

Icing

1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2½ cups icing sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners (I used brown ones with white polka dots).

Stir together cake flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. Combine milk and cream in another bowl.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

To make the chocolate espresso batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa, espresso and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tester (or a toothpick) inserted in centers comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

To make the buttercream, mix the butter and the vanilla together and then slowly beat in the icing sugar. You can use food colouring to make it any colour you’d like; I left it white to go with the color scheme of the papers and the cake, but reserved a bit at the end and made it purple to write Happy Birthday on a bunch of them.

Makes 18-20 cupcakes.

Happy Birthday, lovely <3