The Cake Merchant

Vegan Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting

It’s hard to imagine, but there used to be a time when I didn’t drink coffee. As a young woman in my early twenties, I didn’t need it to get me up in the mornings. In fact, I scoffed at the poor saps who were dependent on their daily caffeine fix. Now, at the ripe old age of thirty, I am a full-fledged coffee addict. My drink of choice is a cappuccino, but after making these cupcakes, I’m beginning to think that I might replace my morning usual with these. They’re like coffee and a muffin(ish) all in one. That makes for a well rounded breakfast, and they’re vegan, so they’re guilt free, right?

Vegan Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting

Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

makes 12 cupcakes

Mocha Cupcakes

1 cup soymilk

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Espresso Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margerine (such as Earth Balance)

3  cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp espresso powder

3 tablespoons soymilk

 

For the cupcakes:

1.Preheat the oven to 350

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the soymilk and vinegar. Set it aside for a couple of minutes to curdle.

3. Add the sugar, oil, espresso, and vanilla to the “buttermilk.” Whisk until the mixture is foamy.

4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until all the ingredients are combined.

6. Pour batter into lined or greased cupcake pans and bake for 18-20 minutes.

7. Cool completely before frosting.

 

For the frosting:

1. Dissolve the espresso powder in the soymailk

2. Beat together the shortening and the margerine until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating for about 3 minutes.

4. Add the soymilk mixture and beat for an additional 5 minutes.

5. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and top with a chocolate covered espresso bean. (I used the star tip that came in my Ateco set).

I’ve made this recipe more times than I can count, and it’s only failed me once. I had moved to a new apartment, and had yet to unpack my oven thermometer. After about 18 minutes, I took the cupcakes out, and they sank. Nobody likes sunken cupcakes (although they did turn into some tasty cake balls), and I’m certain that this mishap had to do with the fact that my new oven was 25 degrees cooler than I thought. If you don’t have an oven thermometer, let your oven preheat for at least 15 minutes before you put the cupcakes in. Most older ovens take at least that much time to fully heat up. For some reason (maybe because they are vegan?), these cupcakes are a little bit more sensitive to oven temperature.

 

Comments

  4. seeing how this is your first post, i just finished surfing your blog and i’m thrilled to have found it ^_^ i must say, some of your recipes are new and different than waht i’m used to reading on some of the most popular baking blogs out there. pictures are way pretty too. before i say anything else, i’ll have to thoroughly read each and every one of them. mkay, over and out.

    Reply

    • I *highly* recommend buying the book this recipe is from, it is full of amazing cupcakes, it is funny, creative, and like this site, has wonderful pictures! I don’t know why but I always feel safer with a photo of what it should look like. 🙂

      I gave up coffee for 24 years, and finally decided “what the heck!” so i will definitely be making these. I wondered if the coffee flavors would be really present (taste-able? :)) so again, loving the feedback from someone who has made them! Now if i can just pipe a decent swirl!

      Reply

      • Thanks, Amy! I agree, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. This was my very first post on this blog, and VCTOTW was the book that got me into baking in the first place. Since making these almost 2 years ago, I have found that coffee extract (I like the Nielsen Massey brand) gives a great coffee flavor without being bitter.

        Reply

  6. I have to say these cupcakes really disappointed me. The only thing I changed was substituting the soy milk for regular milk, yet the recipe failed to live up to my expectations. They weren’t awful but certainly weren’t great either. There was no coffee flavour and the chocolate flavour was pretty subtle and vague. It was definitely not sweet enough. It also left a weird aftertaste in my mouth. In the end, had to soak it with some coffee liquor and add a lot of mocha buttercream to improve the taste I wouldn’t be making these again. Such a shame considering these were for a dinner party and i had no time to make a fresh batch.

    Reply

  8. Sounds delicious! Is there any way to adjust the recipe if I wanted to make an actual cake and not cupcakes?

    Reply

    • You can make an 8-inch by 8-inch square cake or an 8-inch round cake with this. Baking time will be a little longer- closer to 25 min.

      Reply

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