The Story:
Her: “Just FedEx some cupcakes over next week.”
Me: Instant panic attack.
She said it like it was no big deal. Just put some of your delicious and beautiful creations into a cardboard box and trust a bunch of mail men to get them to another state. I’ve seen how some packages look when they get delivered to me. Gashed boxes and smooshed corners, but there were only clothes inside so it was okay. But CUPCAKES!? You have got to be kidding me.
End of the story…the cupcakes got a little smushed but did end up okay.
Mocha Speculoos Cupcakes
Servings 20 -24 cupcakes
Ingredients
Mocha Cupcakes:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 3 Tbsp instant coffee
- 1/4 C. hot water
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 C. oil
- 3/4 C. buttermilk
- 1/2 C. sour cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Speculoos Buttercream:
- 1/2 C. butter softened
- 1/2 C. Speculoos
- 1 Tbsp. milk
- 3-4 C. powdered sugar
Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside.
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3. Mix instant coffee and hot water and stir until dissolved. (You can do this in a mug)
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4. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
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5. Stir in cake mix until smooth.
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6. Add coffee-water mixture and stir again.
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7. Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for 16-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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8. Buttercream: Beat butter and speculoos until smooth. Add milk and powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. If it becomes too thick, stream in more milk.
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9. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with chocolate covered espresso beans.
Recipe Notes
Speculoos is a cookie spread and can be found at Trader Joes (called Cookie Butter) and other retailers.
I got the cute liners from Sweets & Treats! They have amazing grease-proof liners that never fail me
wowLizzy, they look amazing and for your they taste wonderful. Where did you get the chocolate covered espresso beans? I would like to try this recipe this weekend. Once again on my resolution list for this year is to make all the recipes you make, I try it in 2012 but several events in my life stop me from it…this time NOTHING will stop me from my goal.;) God bless you YOUNG LADY and thanks for keep sharing your recipes with us!
I mean : FOR SURE they tast amazing…typo!
I got the espresso beans from Trader Joes!
I love her recipe too..
Harga Besi WF
These cupcakes look absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to make these! Thank you for posting!
♥ Samantha
It’s truly delicious….
Thanks Lizzy for the recipe, it’s look so nice as well the taste.
One more thing , what is speculoos?
It’s a “cookie spread” made by Trader Joes and some other retailers. It’s basically a certain type of cookie ground down into a peanut butter thickness. It’s pure magic.
Hey Lizzy,
you got some interesting frostings on your blog, I will def. try some of them out like the nutella one ;).
One question, do you only use cake mix for your cupcakes, or did I just miss the one you did from scratch? Cake mixes are more expensive and not many good ones here in Germany.
I guess speculoos could be Spekulatius, mostly found during christmastime here in Germany that is. It´s a cookie Zahara, I think it would taste great in frosting 🙂
Love all the cupcakes on your blog Lizzy, so inspiring 🙂 I came across your blog from Homebased Mom
take care
Thuri from Queen of the Kitchen
I do make a lot of cupcakes from cake mixes because they are easy to replicate the same results. But I do have a recipe for Cake Mix from scratch that I will be posting soon! So you can use that recipe wherever you see to use a cake mix
OK Thank you 🙂 looking forward to it. Yes i understand Cake Mix is convinient if you are making alot of Cupcakes 🙂 Will be checking in again soon
I’ve never heard of shipping cupcakes! These look delicious – if you get inspired, ship them to me! Haha!
Hello Lizzy,
I have never posted on any if your recipes before but I wanted to tell you that you are my “go to” when it comes to cupcakes. I do experiment with a lot of different recipes but if I want a no fail & amazing cupcake, this is where I come. I have received so many compliments on your recipes and I always say I get the recipes from you!!
I’ve been looking for a really good frappachino/mocha cupcake and came to your site to find an easy recipe and you had just recently posted this one(slightly excited)!!! I don’t have a TJs around here though and I’m not sure if I would like the cookie butter anyway. Do you have any other suggestions on frosting pairings? I may actually fill these cupcakes with a caramel coffee mousse. If you have any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it!!! And thank you for your amazing cupcakes.
Sheryl
That sounds delicious! You can top it with chocolate buttercream, chocolate espresso buttercream (just add some expresso powder), or a vanilla bean buttercream. Maybe even a peanut butter would be great, if you want a more playful take on it. Thanks so much for your comment! Honored to be your go-to place for perfect recipes!
Just found your blog. YOU ARE FABULOUS!!! Not for sure which recipe to start with. Thanks for posting so much details 😀
Can I bake (2) 8 inch layer cakes with this recipe?
Yes you can!
I’ve made about 15 of your other recipes but this one is the absolute BEST. I love love love the cookie butter frosting and the mocha combination is perfect. so good!!
Oh good! Yes the frosting is delicious and not too sweet!
Would it be possible to use a devils food cake mix instead? What would it do to the flavor? Love your website by the way!! Always my go to!
Yes you can! Chocolate cake would be great with this!
What do you suggest I could add to this frosting to make it a little more mocha like? I am baking coffee cupcakes for a friend and just want her to be pleased :
To make it mocha add cocoa powder (unsweetened) and espresso powder!
I have tried to find expresso powder everywhere.. At grocery stores and no luck .. Would a whole foods sell it?
You can use instant coffee! Stores sell little containers of it, I know Nestle sells one that I have used before. Just crush up the granules so that they go in smooth!
ok..the nestle brand…is that for expresso powder of instant coffee? sorry for all the questions…
Yes, yes!
What does the sour cream and buttermilk add to the cupcake? Do they take place of the stuff you normally add to the cake mix? instead of coffee, would coffee extract work for the cupcakes and also add extract to the frosting with cocoa for more mocha? thank you, you are amazing!
Yes, the coffee extract will work! I just used coffee since most people don’t have the extract on hand! The sour cream and buttermilk make the cupcake more dense and flavorful, they really are much better with them.
Will I replace the oil n water with the buttermilk and sour cream? Is that better than butter and reg milk, you think?
don’t omit the oil! But I do prefer buttermilk over regular milk!
I dont mean to ask so many questions…sorry…can i use milk instead of buttermilk….still use sour cream…and use butter in place of oil? The milk measurements are same as water measurements on box..thoughts?
Yes, you can swap butter for oil though, that’s totally fine!
last question..and then i am making these…first ones ever…
i will do the butter, buttermilk or milk..do i still add sourcream?
Yes, still add the sour cream, nothing replaces that!
Iif I use regular milk, same measurements as buttermilk, or the water measurements in box .. Adding cocoa powder how muc do I add?
Made them ! Didn’t add cocoa just extract… Yum.. Great working with cookie butter!! What other frosting could I use this cookie butter with! Outstanding to work with
Banana cupcakes or vanilla cupcakes would be great!
Does the coffee need to be cooled before adding to the batter?
Just not hot enough to cook the eggs!