These mini coffee cupcakes could be served any time of year but dress them up in gold wrappers with glittery sprinkles and you’ve got yourself a bitesize dessert for passing around at parties.
Something I noticed when running my cake stall this summer was that mini cupcakes are now more popular than full size ones.
I believe, that regardless of any latest “cupcakes are over” hoo-har, people are still drawn to them because they’re so visually pleasing, individually portioned and versatile how they’re flavoured and decorated.
With their dash of coffee flavour, these mini coffee cupcakes would be ideal to serve with coffee at the end of a meal during the Christmas period.
The designs available for mini cupcake wrappers are far fewer however metallic gold and silver ones are generally the easiest type to find beyond plain white.
These cases were by Culpitt, available on Amazon: gold mini cupcake wrappers. They’re not flimsy and thick enough not to go translucent after baking.
Take care when baking mini cupcakes not to a) overfill the cases and b) not to over bake. I find a heaped teaspoon of batter baked for around 8 minutes is all it takes.
I break a personal rule with mini cupcakes that the ratio of buttercream to sponge is far greater than I’d normally create with a full sized cupcake.
But I think they’re still small enough to get away with it in two bites!
- 125g butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp ground coffee
- 110g self raising flour
- 15g cocoa powder
- For the topping
- 120g softened butter
- 360g icing sugar
- 30ml milk
- ½ tsp ground coffee powder
- 2 drops coffee extract
- 1 bar of Aero cut into small shards
- Gold sprinkles
- Preheat the oven to 190c / gas mark 5. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together. This can be done by hand or with a handheld electric or stand mixer.
- Beat in the eggs one by one along and then fold in the flour, cocoa powder and ground coffee.
- Using two teaspoons, decant the batter into the paper cases. If you have 3 baking tins you can do them all at the same time otherwise do 12 at a time. You'll barely need a dollop per case.
- Bake the cakes for 8-10 minutes, they're very small so take care not to over bake.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the trays for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile beat the softened butter into the icing sugar and add the milk, coffee powder and coffee extract. I blitz mine in the food processor to prevent clouds of icing sugar getting everywhere.
- To pipe the cupcakes, decant the buttercream into the disposable piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe a small swirl in a circular movement onto each cake before topping with some shards of Aero.
To pipe swirls you will need a disposable piping bag with a star nozzle.
If you enjoy coffee in bakes then you might also like:
Chocolate coffee sugar cookies and why I’ll never be a barista (Maison Cupcake)
Coffee and walnut mini eclairs (Maison Cupcake)
Chocolate dipped espresso blondie bites (Maison Cupcake)
Coffee candied almonds (Fuss Free Flavours)
Espresso Meringue Bites (Feeding Boys)
Espresso macaroons (Utterly Scrummy)
I am entering these festive mini coffee cupcakes into Karen and Kate’s Tea Time Treats, The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes’ Alphabakes, and Cakey Boi’s Treat Petite which each have the themes, festive food treats, X is for Xmas and Happy Holidays respectively.
If you love Aero you might be interested to know that they are currently holding a vote on Facebook to help choose their next new flavour.
The results will be announced in January with the new flavour available in March. Find out more at the Aero Facebook App on the Aero Facebook page.
Post and promotion of Aero Facebook app commissioned by Aero for a fee.
Yummmmmm. These look awesome. So simple but so decadent in those gold foil cases. I don’t think I could choose an aero flavour. Must admit taste is too sweet for me nowadays.
Thank you so much for entering Treat Petite. I love Dead Easy Desserts and will be entering that when I get a chance. Lovely looking cupcakes!
Love all coffee flavoured cakes, little bitesize versions always look so pretty and the gold cases set these off so well, I’m sure the chunks of chocolate add a nice coffee hit too!
Your cupcakes look amazing, coffee and chocolate are a fab combination too.
Thank you very much for entering TTT and Happy Christmas!
I’ve featured this recipe on my blog, hoping that you don’t mind, but if you do, please contact me and I’ll remove it. All the best.
I love mini cupcakes and the flavour combination here is lovely. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.