Mocha Cupcakes

Last night, I baked some mocha cupcakes for a party.  They were pretty tasty, so I wanted to share with you.

 

 I used a basic chocolate cake recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.  This cook book has never steered me wrong and I highly recommend it.  I thought about posting the recipe here, but just click on the link :)  These cupcakes take about 15min to bake.

One thing I will add is that I scooped the batter into cupcake pans using a cookie scoop to dish out the batter.  We recently bought one of these using a wedding gift card and it is AMAZING.  You can scoop cookies, muffins, cupcakes.  Anything.  One scoop is the perfect size for mini-muffins.

I then iced the cupcakes with coffee icing.  This was the tricky step.  I used this recipe from Paula Deen for coffee buttercream frosting.  I imagined big, fluffy frosting.  It turned out rather thin, more like that glazey frosting that you see on sugar cookies.  I added more and more powdered sugar before finally accepting fate and using what I had.  But, it turned out rather good!  I just dipped the cupcakes into the frosting and they ended up with a pretty, light-brown glaze.  (although after some man-handling, they don't look quite as pretty in the picture below-consequences of a potluck I suppose)

Plus, I got to use my dessert tower.  Oh yeah.