Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting
These mocha cupcakes are coffee and espresso-infused, with a subtle chocolate flavor, and topped with an espresso-spiked buttercream frosting.
These mocha cupcakes are a chocolate and coffee lover’s dream come true. If you can’t get your day going without your favorite cup of coffee, you’re in luck.
I might even go so far as to suggest that you should just skip your morning cup of coffee or trip to Starbucks and have one of these instead. The cake part itself strikes a subtle balance between light chocolate and a hint of creamy coffee. Not overwhelming on either end of the spectrum, and the combination results in a smooth, clean flavor, which is perfect for topping with espresso-spiked buttercream.
I love this recipe because it’s incredibly low maintenance in terms of preparation. I used my hand mixer and had these babies into the oven less than 30 minutes after I got started. I am absolutely infatuated with the texture of the cupcake – it’s so incredibly soft and tender, with not even a hint of dryness. It’s basically the perfect cupcake and I’m dying to think of other recipes to use the same base recipe.
As always, I try to achieve at least a 1:1 ratio of frosting to cake when frosting my cupcakes. Frosting is dreamy, yes? I could eat it with a spoon, straight from the mixing bowl. I pile it way high!
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I’ve mentioned many times that I’m not a big coffee drinker, mostly because I don’t like the flavor of black coffee, so I need to doctor it up with all kinds of cream and sugar to enjoy it, and I figure if I’m going to do that, I might as well just have some dessert… Oh wait.
These mocha cupcakes are pretty much how I like to ingest my coffee. Sugar? Check. Cream? Check.
While I don’t drink coffee, I absolutely, positively LOVE these cupcakes, and I’m willing to bet that many of you will, too!
Four years ago: Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes
Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- ½ cup (118.5 ml) brewed coffee, at room temperature
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) espresso powder
- ½ cup (122 ml) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cups (166.67 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (28.67 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (110 g) light brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
For the Espresso Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2½ cups (300 g) powdered sugar
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) vanilla extract
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) espresso powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard-size muffin tin with paper liners.
- Make the Cupcakes: In a measuring cup, whisk the espresso powder into the brewed coffee until completely dissolved. Add the milk and vanilla extract; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of the coffee mixture, mixing each until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, give the batter a final stir to ensure everything is incorporated.
- Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.
- Make the Frosting: In a small bowl, whisk the espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside.
- Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high speed until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary. Frost the cupcakes as desired (I used the Wilton 1M decorating tip).
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on August 13, 2010.
u must use 2 eggs not one to improve structure
These are delicious. A few issues for me, though. The batter made more than the 12 standard-size cupcakes. I should have made 13 or 14 but instead overfilled my 12. :-(. Then I didn’t have quite enough frosting for the 12–and it certainly wouldn’t have covered the extra one or two. (I did pipe as well with a 1M tip.) Finally, I had the same issue with cake structure as several commenters. While very tender “pan” cake is wonderful, a handheld cake needs to be sturdier. Mine just fell into a tender, crumbly, delicious mess. Next time I’m going to try subbing bread flour for the all-purpose (a tip I picked up from a Cooks Illustrated chocolate cupcake recipe) to increase the protein content. Thanks for the recipe!
^^^Lynn and I seem to be baking in parallel lives.
When will your frosting tutorial be available? I’ve tried to make the pretty ruffle effect using the 1M tip as in your pic above, but mine doesnt look so good. :-(
Any tips?
Just pinned your GORGEOUS cupcakes!
These are seriously the best cupcakes I’ve ever made!! Even my father in law who doesn’t like coffee LOVES them. I’ve had requests to make them at the last 4 family outings. Just amazing. I also like to sprinkle them with cocoa powder and stick a pirouette cookie in them. Even just the cupcake without frosting is incredible, moist and chocolatey with a hint of coffee. Perfect. Thanks!!
This is the 3rd cupcake recipe that I have made from this site. I love the recipes and the pictures. However, each time I have ended up with more batter than the yeild specifies. Tonight I made these cupcakes, and the directions say to divide the batter among the 12 cupcakes, and if I had done that, they would be overflowing. As it is, they over-baked the cups and are all touching one another. I filled 2 more cupcakes and filled them more reasonably (the 3/4 usually recommended), and I think these will be perfect with the frosting. The other two recipes that made more than the yield are the Lemoncello and the Irish Car Bomb. I didn’t mind having extra cupcakes, but with the Lemoncello I ended up needing to make 2 batches of the frosting in order to have enough for the 12, and just enough for the additional 6 that were made. I’m probably doing something wrong, but I don’t know what.
Hi Lynne, Do you happen to have an older muffin tin? I ask because I have attempted to bake a couple of times with my mom’s tins, and the sizes of the muffin cups vary dramatically from pan to pan, and especially compared to the ones I own.
Hi, my tins are not new, but they aren’t ancient either. I get the usual amount of cupcakes from a mix using them. Should the instructions just indicate how much to fill the tins? Then it doesn’t really matter what size they are and if they make more. BTW, when I wrote my comment, I hadn’t finished making the cupcakes. I did, and they were delicious. I found the cake extremely crumbly – had to eat it with a fork to not get it all over yourself. I did just barely have enough frosting to frost the amount of cupcakes I got (15) using the large decorating tip. I think I could have doubled the frosting, and I might have had a bit left over, but I prefer that to running out.
Hi Lynne, I usually fill my cupcake tins between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way full. I hope that helps!
I tried these cupcakes and everyone loved them. The cupcakes turned out perfectly moist and the frosting was light and fluffy. I would reccommend these cupcakes to everyone!
I was very excited to find an eggless cupcake since my daughter-in-law is allergic and then kept reading again to make sure I hadn’t missed it. Ahhh…the instructions show “the egg” but the list of ingredients do not. Thought you might want to know!
I’m just going to have to make these when she’s not around. LOL
Hi Shari, Thanks so much for the note! The egg is actually the last ingredient listed, not in the usual spot you see it in recipes. Enjoy the cupcakes!
Hi, i love to bake and i am 15 years old, and i don’t make coffee often… about how many tbs or tsp of coffee go into the strong coffee? and what kind, if there is a special kind? Thank you so much, i just found your website and it’s beautiful.
Hi Gloria, If you don’t often make coffee, you could always head to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts and just buy a coffee, that would be easy! Otherwise I usually use this formula for coffee – for however many cups as you’re making, use 1/2 that many scoops + 1. For example, if you fill your coffee pot to the 8 cup line, I would use 5 scoops. I am not sure about tablespoons/teaspoons – I use a coffee scoop when making coffee and am not sure what the equivalent is.
Dear Brown eyed baker,
Thank you so very much for this absolutely mouth watering recipe… I tried this out for my husband’s birthday party and I had 60 guests, so I figured I would multiply all ingredients 5 fold, but I was dubious as well, as to how well the multiplying of all the components would work out towards the overall success of the cupcakes, but still went on… I was a bit worried about taking the exact milk and coffee liquid measures, so made only 2 cups worth of the liquid, but I had to remake the liquid mixture untill it was also 5 fold… AMAZING!!! I would have to rate this as the best recipe I have ever had to make, as it is simple and doles out amazing results… The cupcakes were super soft (as opposed to the general opinion of how the cakes become dense as the recipe is multiplied) and I put the chocolate frosting you had given in another recipe as I live in Sri Lanka and expresso powder isn’t available in any of the stores nearby… The cupcakes were scrumtious and all my guests thought so, some wanted the recipe and they couldn’t believe it was a recipe I had taken online… Some of my guests wanted to take extra’s home, it was sooooooooo good… Thank you so much brown eyed baker, your cupcakes were like the frosting on my cake…
These were super good! But when I made mine, they overflowed and got crusty on the top. Any tips on how to prevent this in the future? Also if I double the recipe to make a 2 layer 9- inch cake, how long do you think they would need to bake? Thanks in advance
Hi Kala, I would just make sure that you only fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full. Some older pans aren’t the same size (my mom has pans that are all different sizes!), so making sure they aren’t over-filled will ensure they don’t overflow.
I recently made these cupcakes and they are sooo delicious! I’m really looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you so much for the recipe. I made this 2 dozens and give some to office and it was a huge hit! Delicious!
OMG! This Mocha cupcake recipe is the best EVER! I made them yesterday and came out perfect, perfec texture, perfect flavor! I just used a Nutella frosting with chocolate sprinkles on top & it was DELICIOUS! Took some to work & everyone loved it!!!! Thanks so much for the recipe!!
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!! I made them for a party and everyone just raved over them!! The cake was fluffy and rich and the frosting was creamy and perfect balance of espresso to chocolate. 5 stars!!
Is there anything I can use to substitue for the espresso powder? By the way, I just made your lemon cupcakes and they are amazing!!!
Hi Sabrina, If you have access to an instant coffee powder, you can use that too. They just need to be instant, so that they dissolve easily. Glad you enjoyed the lemon cupcakes!
Where do you find espresso powder?
Hi Emma, I buy mine at a local Italian grocery store, but you can also find it online on Amazon and places like King Arthur Flour.
I made these and they were the best! Super moist inside, the frosting was to sugary for me though
I just wanted to let you know that I linked back to this post from my blog.(http://bit.ly/LobvqO) I finally achieved success with the frosting and even have a picture to prove it :) Thank you for such a great recipe. It is tucked away in my “keepers” file!
These were amazing! I could eat the frosting by the spoonful. Thank you for sharing.
These are absolutely delicious!! Even my coffe hating family loved these.
do you ever make extra frosting to frost your cupcakes?
Hi Ellie, The ingredient quantities in the cupcake recipes are what I used to frost that number of cupcakes. In pretty much every case, there is some frosting leftover, but I’d always prefer to have too much than not enough. As you can see, I love to pile frosting high on cupcakes, so if you follow the quantities in the recipe I think you should have enough. You definitely could always double it, but I wanted you to know what was taken into account when I provide a frosting recipe.
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Oh my goodness! Those are like heaven in my mouth! Absolutely wonderful!
I love the cupcakes the frostin gi couln’t get right though
Yum! How did you frost these cupcakes, with what icing tip? They look looovelyyyy :)
Hi Kelly, I used a Wilton 1M decorating tip.
I used a different cake recipe, and really didn’t care for the icing it came along with because it called for 6 cups of powdered sugar, so I thought I would try yours. Was I ever glad I did…your method of beating the butter etc., made the buttercream just heavenly and so silky. Yummo and I am NOT a buttercream fan. I prefer the whipped cream, the only thing I did was eliminate 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar because I doubled the recipe, and the consistency was still god enough to pipe.
Tried this yesterday and it was PERFECT. I loved it so much that I finished the entire batch/12pcs. Haha! I’m making this for our graduation party. Thanks for the recipe!
is the batter really runny? :( my first attempt was a fail)
I made these not too long ago and they are beyond amazing!!! My favorite cupcake to date and that frosting……..mmmmm….. is out of this world!