Italian Espresso Cupcakes with a Hazelnut Centre

This month's AlphaBakes letter is "I" which is a slightly tricky letter. Last time round I made Italian biscotti and I'm afraid I've gone for the same use of I with these Italian espresso cupcakes with a hazelnut centre. The cupcakes are light and you can clearly taste the coffee. My colleague bought me some packs of Giotto from Germany which are very similar to Ferrero Rochers. I put one in the centre of the cupcake which stayed whole and gave a slightly nutty flavour to the cupcakes. I also put one on top for decoration. 

As mentioned I'm entering these to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month and by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is I for Italian espresso (brewed in my Italian coffee pot!) 

 Italian coffee and Giotto - hazelnut cream filled balls

 Place one Giotto in the centre before baking 

 Perfect with a cup of coffee 

Makes 12 cupcakes
For the cupcakes
175g unsalted butter
175g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
175g self-raising flour
4 tablespoons Italian espresso brewed in an Italian coffee pot 

12 Giotto (you can use Ferrero Rochers instead)

For the icing

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 - 3 teaspoons Italian espresso
350g icing sugar, sifted

To decorate

12 Giotto

cocoa powder for dusting 

• Brew a pot of Italian espresso (or use instant espresso) and set aside. 
• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Place 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake tray.
• Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 
• Add in the coffee.
• Stir in the flour and mix well.
• Divide the batter evenly between 12 cupcake cases.
• Place 1 Giotto ball in the centre of each cupcake - there's no need to cover it as it will sink as the cake bakes.
• Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• To make the icing, beat the icing sugar and butter together for a few minutes. 
• Add in the coffee and continue mixing until smooth. 
• Pipe the buttercream on top of the cooled cupcake. 
• Dust with cocoa powder and place a Giotto ball on top.

Coffee Cake with Meringue

This is a twist on a classic coffee and walnut cake. It has a coffee meringue top and a drizzle of coffee icing and is definitely one for coffee lovers. I used Camp Coffee essence in the cake and filling which really added to the coffee flavour. It's a recipe that I've adapted slightly from BBC Good Food. My colleague's reaction to this cake was "I've died and gone to heaven and I won't be coming back!" It's a really good way of using up leftover egg whites which I had plenty of as I made a lot of custard recently for an upcoming post.

 adding coffee and walnuts to the meringue 

 adding some walnuts to the cake batter 

 meringue topped cake, normal cake 

 place  1 cake on a cake board/serving plate 

 add the coffee filling 

 place the meringue topped cake on top and drizzle with coffee icing 

 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food 

For the cake
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

75 walnuts

2 tablespoon coffee essence 

2 teaspoon coffee mixture

For the meringue topping
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
3 tsp instant coffee granules mixed with 3 tablespoon boiling water (coffee mixture)
25g chopped walnuts

For the filling

100g butter
200g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon coffee essence 

1 teaspoon coffee mixture 

For the drizzle icing
3 -6  tbsp icing sugar depending on consistency

Coffee mixture 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Grease and line 2  20cm sandwich tins.
• Firstly make the meringue by whisking the egg whites until stiff.
• Gradually add in the sugar and continue whisking.
• Make the coffee mixture by dissolving 3 teaspoons of instant coffee granules in 3 tablespoon of boiling water.
• Gently fold in walnuts and 1 teaspoon of coffee mixture into the meringue. Set aside.
• Next make the cake mixture by creaming butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Add in the eggs then fold in the flour and baking powder.
• Add 2 teaspoons of coffee mixture and 2 tablespoons of coffee essence. 
• Gently fold in the nuts. 
• Divide the cake mixture between the 2 tins, putting more mixture in one than the other.
• Spread the meringue on top of the tin containing less cake mixture.
• Bake the plain sponge for 20-22 mins until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Continue baking the meringue topped sponge for a further 40-42 minutes.
• Allow cakes to cool completely in their tins. 
• Now make the coffee filling by beating butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Gradually add in the coffee essence and coffee mixture. 
• Place the plain cake on a cake board or serving tray. Spread the coffee filling evenly and then gently place the meringue topped cake on top.
• Add 3-6 tablespoons of icing sugar to the remaining coffee mixture and stir to mix well (you may need more icing sugar depending on consistency) 
• Drizzle the icing over the top. 

Coffee and Apple muffins

I'd never have thought to pair coffee and apples together but they work! I still had a bunch of apples from my colleague's garden and didn't want to make another apple crumble or crumble cake so I had a look through my recipe collection and stumbled across these muffins. The recipe called for grated apples but I chopped them instead as I like the crunch of apples. I was intrigued by the use of coffee granules (at least I hope I read the recipe correctly) and it gave a lovely aroma and taste to the muffin. I had 2 for breakfast the next day after baking these. They are juicy and moist and I like the little chunks of apple in them. The coffee taste is quite strong and it smells delicious. The crumble topping is my favourite bit.

I'm entering them to AlphaBakes which I'm hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is C for coffee.

 add coffee filling in centre

 top with more muffin mixture

 finally add the crumble mixture

Makes 12 muffins

Coffee filling
2 tablespoons ground coffee
4 tablespoons ground almonds
4 tablespoons brown sugar

Crumble topping
20g butter, softened
2 tablespoons plain flour
4 tablespoons brown sugar

Dry ingredients
240g plain flour
75g rolled oats
3 teaspoons baking powder
85g caster sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients
150ml milk
110ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
260g (approximately 3 apples) peeled, cored and grated apples (I chopped mine into small pieces)

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the coffee filling and set aside. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the crumble topping and add 1 tablespoon of coffee filling and set aside. 
• Mix all the dry ingredients together.
• Mix all the wet ingredients together except the apples. 
• Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. 
• Finally add in the apples but be careful not to overmix. 
• Fill the muffin cups halfway. 
• Add 2 teaspoons of coffee filling then add more batter on top. 
• Fill the moulds to the top with the crumble topping.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Hazelnut, chocolate and coffee spelt cookies

It's Random Recipe time again. This exciting challenge is hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. He likes to keep us on our toes - you never know what to expect! Fortunately the challenge this month was not too difficult - count up all your books and use a random number generator to select the book to use. Open up that book to a random page and cook that recipe. I often use a random number generator particularly for random recipes to select my book and often to select the page as well. This time, the trusty number generator thingamidoodah (yes it's a real word) churned out no 34 which was.....

 This is a lovely little book full of cookie recipes. 

I opened it up to a random page and got Chocolate & coffee wholemeal cookies. I felt like I'd won the random recipe lottery. I did change up the recipe a little bit as I didn't have all the ingredients to hand. The resulting cookie was crispy, nutty and chocolatey. I didn't get much of the coffee flavour - will definitely add a bit more next time. On the plus side, the spelt and oats made it seem healthy which eased the guilt of eating four two cookies in a row. Definitely one for the cookie jar!

 camp coffee essence, spelt flour, roasted hazelnuts, chocolate chips, oats. 

 I love the melty chocolate bits inside

Recipe from Cookie Jar - I've given my adaptations below

175g butter

180g soft brown sugar

1 egg

70g plain flour

70g spelt flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

225g chocolate chips (i used a mixture of dark and milk)

185g rolled oats

1 tablespoon coffee essence (recommend 2 tablespoons for a stronger coffee flavour)

100g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Grease and line 2 baking trays.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add in the egg.
• Sift the flour, spelt flour and bicabonate of soda and mix into the butter mixture.
• Stir in the chocolate chips, coffee, hazelnuts and oats and mix well.
• Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out small scoops of cookie dough spaced well apart. 
• Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Coffee, maple and pecan cake

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend especially all the mothers out there celebrating Mother's Day.  I spent most of mine baking for an afternoon tea today.  I baked everything from scratch except for the bread. There will be multiple posts to showcase everything we had today. I'm going to start with the layer cake which is a little different from the traditional victoria sponge cake. It's a twist on a coffee and walnut cake using pecans and maple syrup. The recipe is from Ocado which I modified slightly. 

The cake was moist and the coffee and pecan flavours really came through. I am now totally in love with Camp coffee essence.  The icing was on the sweet side but it went well with the cake. A definite winner! Leftovers were given to Yogi and his team - do let me know what you guys think! I wish I'd kept another slice for myself now :)

 pecans, coffee essence and maple syrup

 melt butter and maple syrup for the icing

 base layer

 cross section

Recipe from ocado 

I've added my changes below

For the cake

225g self raising flour

175g caster sugar

175g butter

3 eggs

2 tablespoon coffee essence

100g pecans, roughly chopped

For the icing

100g butter

4 tablespoon coffee essence

2 tablespoon maple syrup

350g icing sugar

Whole pecan nuts to decorate 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line 2 sandwich tins.
• Beat all ingredients for cake except pecans in a mixer until smooth. 
• Stir in the pecans.
• Divide evenly into 2 tins and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• To make the icing, melt the butter and maple syrup in a pan over medium heat.
• Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. 
• Pour the butter and syrup mixture into the icing sugar.
• Add coffee essence. 
• Beat until smooth. 
• Sandwich the cakes together with icing. Spread more icing on the top and sides.
• Decorate with whole pecans as shown or you can sprinkle crushed pecans on top. 

• 
  

Happy 3rd Birthday and a Coffee & Walnut Cake

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year! It's my blog's 3rd birthday today so I had to make something to mark the occasion. Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos - the lighting was very poor and there were a lot of shadows! I can't believe that my blog is entering it's 3rd year - when I started it, I wasn't even sure if it would last for a few months! I had a look back at my baking/blogging resolutions from last year and am pleased to announce that I stuck to all of them.  2012 was a great year for my blog. The highlights have been:

• Co-hosting AlphaBakes with Caroline from Caroline Makes - it has been a resounding success and we are very grateful to all our AlphaBakers. 
• Joining in a record number of blog challenges for 2012 which I hope to continue in 2013. 
• Writing a record number of 166 posts for the year (compared to 107 in 2011 and 106 in 2010

I'm not sure what lies ahead for 2013 but I know I definitely want to continue baking and blogging.  However, the pace will be slower as I have other priorities for 2013 and maintaining my blog plus hosting AlphaBakes on alternate months is like a second full time job! 

On to the cake - this is a coffee and walnut cake using fresh walnuts from my recent trip to Australia.  The cake was moist and delicious with a lovely coffee aroma.  I wanted to try a new decorating technique which didn't quite work so if anyone has any advice, I'd be very grateful! 

  fresh walnuts from Australia 

 cakes ready to go in the oven 

 brush with coffee syrup once cooked 

 my new textured rolling pin - you probably can't see it clearly from the photos but it says happy birthday and has a lovely design with it 

 I rolled out a piece of yellow fondant then rolled the textured pin on top. I then sprinkled some icing sugar to bring out the pattern which you can make out if you look closely. 

 I covered the cake with coffee buttercream and then placed the embossed fondant on top  

  delicious cake! 

I've never used a textured rolling pin before - does anyone know how to make the patterns stand out more? I tried dusting some glitter powder on top but that didn't work. Is it best to use it for details rather then covering the whole cake? 

Recipe for cake and buttercream can be found here 

Secret Recipe Club: Coffee Cookies

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club Group D reveal day. I was worried I would not have time to bake for this as assignments are given out in the first week of November for a reveal day at the end of November. I knew I had to pack all my kitchen equipment (click here to read why) but nevertheless I didn't want to miss out on one of my favourite challenges especially as the club is taking a break for December. Unfortunately, I won't be able to participate in January as I will still be travelling and homeless so I will be back in February 2013!

My assignment this month is Chocolate and Dreams who resides in India. She was introduced to the world of baking in 1999 after her mother sent her to a cookery class. Today she cooks and blogs and hopes to start her own cafeteria where food and dreams are cherished and relished. Her blog is beautifully laid out with lovely pictures to accompany each post. I headed straight for the recipe index and looked at her baking section. I shortlisted busy day cake, banana chocolate cupcakes, lemon bars and classic brownies. In the end, I decided on coffee cookies as I had all the ingredients to hand and it did not require any special equipment.

The cookies were amazing! They were soft and crumbly with a strong coffee taste. They were really aromatic and I love the extra sugar crunch on top which also helped to sweeten the cookie as it's not overly sweet. Definitely perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

 

 

 honey and coffee

ready to go in the oven

handmade with love :)

Recipe from Chocolates and Dreams 

50g brown sugar (use more if you prefer a sweeter cookie)

85g honey

170g butter

2.5 tablespoons coffee granules
2 tablespoons hot water

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

155g flour

Demerera sugar for sprinkling (or any coarse brown sugar)

• Preheat the oven at 175C and grease and line a baking sheet.
• Dissolve the coffee in the hot water and set aside to cool.
• Beat the brown sugar, honey and butter until light and fluffy.
• Add in the egg and mix well.
• Add in the coffee mix.
• Finally, fold in the flour and baking powder.
• Drop by spoonfuls on a lined baking sheet.
• Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 10 minutes to get soft cookies and 12 – 13 minutes to make them crunchy.

Weight Watchers Coffee Tiramisu Cake

It's true that you know who your true friends are when you are in trouble. Recently I really needed the help and support of friends and I'm pleased that one in particular came to my rescue. She was a star and I am so grateful for her help. Of course my way of saying thank you is to bake a cake but she had recently started weight watchers and told me (jokingly I hope!) that part of the reason was my bakes!!

Undeterred, I looked up a recipe on weight watchers and came across this coffee tiramisu cake which has 4 weight watcher points per serving. I ended up having a slice with her when I delivered the cake but I'm afraid I don't have a picture of the slice. What I can say is that the cake is quite tasty for a fatless sponge. This is far better than my previous attempt at a low fat chocolate mocha cake. If you or your friends are on a diet, I highly recommend this for a healthy treat! Just to be clear my friend was very pleased to receive the cake and no I do not intentionally sabotage people's diets! :)

I'm sending this along to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes as the letter is T for tiramisu. I promise it was a total coincidence - my aim was to find a delicious low fat recipe that uses regular ingredients. I do wonder how they got the height of the cake in their photo - either a very small tin or a different recipe!

 whisk the eggs and sugar until it is thick and airy 

 I think I was supposed to use a smaller tin ... oops! I only have this size anyway so tough luck. 

 I only had marsala wine so I used that. I bought 0% fat youghurt and low fat cream cheese 

 Place the (thin) sponge on a plate 

 spread the yoghurt/cream cheese mixture on top 

 Layer with cake and more topping 

 Finally dust with cocoa powder 

Recipe from weightwatchers

5 spray(s) Cooking Spray, Calorie Controlled 1 teaspoons Coffee, Ground 3 medium Egg, Whole 75 g Sugar, Light Brown 75 g Flour, Wheat, White, Plain 250 g Cheese, Soft, Medium Fat 100 g Rachel's Organic Range Luscious Low Fat Bio-Life Yogurt with Vanilla 15 ml Liqueurs, High Strength, (3 tsp) Tia Maria 1 teaspoons (heaped) Cocoa Powder, for sprinkling Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190°C/fan oven 170°C.  Lightly grease 2 x 18cm sandwich tins with low fat cooking spray.  Line the bases with circles of non-stick baking parchment or greaseproof paper. Put the coffee powder or granules into a cup and add 1 tbsp boiling water, stirring to dissolve. Whisk the eggs and sugar together using a hand-held electric whisk until pale, thick and very airy. This will take about 5 minutes.  Whisk in the coffee liquid. Sift the flour into the mixture and fold it in lightly using a large metal spoon.  Share the mixture between the cake tins and level the tops.  Bake the cakes for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly.  Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove from the tins and peel away the lining paper. Cool completely. Beat the low fat soft cheese with a wooden spoon until softened, then stir in the vanilla yogurt and 1 tbsp Tia Maria or Marsala.  Put one of the cakes on a serving plate and sprinkle the rest of the Tia Maria or Marsala evenly over the surface.  Spread half the soft cheese mixture on top, then place the second cake in position.  Cover with the remaining soft cheese mixture and sprinkle with cocoa powder.  Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve, though allow time for the cake to come up to room temperature to enjoy it at its best.