Bakers United

VANILLA CUPCAKES WITH COFFEE FROSTING.

Ingredients:

400g Self-Raising Flour
1.5 cups of caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
200g softened butter
2 tsp of vanilla essence, or vanilla bean paste. [I personally prefer essence, but this is up to you! :)]

And for the icing:

200g icing sugar
300g softened butter
2 handfuls of roasted coffee beans, plus some more for decoration.
[I have a coffee bean grinder at home (I’m a massive coffee drinker/lover) so I ground my beans just before putting them in the icing so that they would taste as fresh as possible. I suppose you could use instant coffee… {but really, instant coffee?!}] 

To do:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (356F) 
2. Line muffin pans with patty cases. (This recipe makes about 24 - so two trays :))
3. Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and eggs. [Normally, one would use an electric mixer. I used my arm.]
4. Add the flour and milk and combine. I don’t suggest using an electric mixer here.
5. Spoon the mixture into patty cases and bake! This usually takes about 20 minutes, but to double check, lightly tap the top of a cupcake - if it springs back up, it’s cooked! :)

YOU NOW HAVE CUPCAKES!

For the frosting:

1. Grind the coffee beans. Or use instant coffee, that’s totally cool too. [Hint: You can buy quality ground coffee at your supermarket. If you want to make your icing legit, I suggest you use it. :D]
2. Combine the icing sugar and the butter until it becomes a paste-like frosting mixture. (There should be seemingly more butter than necessary - if it’s already dry, you’ll need more butter)
3. Put in the ground beans into the mixture. MIX!
4. You have frosting xD

Frost the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate with coffee beans. You’re done! :)

(There is usually more frosting than you actually need - as a result, you have a lovely little caffeine boosting treat to get you [and your friends!] through the day)