Coffee and walnut cupcakes
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + cooling
- Easy
- Makes 12
Ingredients
- 100g walnuts
- 140g golden caster sugar
- 3 tbsp milk, heated
- 2 tsp instant coffee granules
- 100g salted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp walnut oil
- 2 eggs
- 75g self-raising flour
- 75g plain wholemeal flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 350g unsalted butter, softened
- 400g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp (mixed with 4 tbsp boiling water to dissolve) instant coffee granules
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- STEP 1
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases. Put the walnuts in a food processor with about half the sugar and whizz until very finely chopped (like ground almonds).
- STEP 2
Mix the milk and coffee to dissolve the coffee (if it needs some help, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds).
- STEP 3
Tip the walnut-sugar mix, remaining sugar, milky coffee, soft butter, oil, eggs, flours and bicarb into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth. Divide between the cases then bake for 18 minutes, or until golden and risen, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then lift the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- STEP 4
For the icing, put the butter in a big mixing bowl and beat for about 5 minutes until very pale and creamy. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa then add the coffee and vanilla and beat for another 3-5 minutes until very fluffy.
- STEP 5
To decorate, put the icing into a large piping bag fitted with a star nozzle – for our ruffle icing, we used a Wilton 2D nozzle (from lakeland.co.uk). Pipe swirls of icing on top of each cake, then leave to set for 20 minutes before eating.
