The cups I chose are a little kitsch I know. My husband, an avid sailor, unfailingly receives a slew of sailing cards every birthday and incredibly there has never been a double up. I had never noticed card shops catering for the sailing genre until I met him, certainly I don’t seem to see any “cricket” or “netball” themed cards. I secretly suspect that his birthday is one that is propping up the sailing card industry such is the amount of sailing themed cards that he receives. Accordingly I felt the need to buy these cute little sailing cups for him although I will confess they rarely get used. I also made tiny espresso cup ones in a more respectable colour. Strange pattern or not, you’ll need to find cups that roughly match the size of your cupcake liners.
The cake itself is one of the nicest, softest chocolate cake recipes I’ve come across. And when you read the method, you’ll also see that its one of the easiest, no creaming or beaters necessary, just place all ingredients bar the dry ones in a small saucepan and heat on low heat and then whisk in the flour and egg. The resultant crust has an almost caramel toffee like texture and the cake is rich, soft and fluffy with a delicate crumb. When it cools, it becomes a moist, dense mocha mud cake.
Mochaccino cupcakes
Who ever knew that they’d make Limited Edition flour? 
Mocha Mud cake
- 165g butter
- 100g dark eating chocolate chopped coarsely
- 1 1/3 cups (290g) caster sugar
- 2/3 cup (170ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60ml) coffee liquer
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
- 1 cup (150g) plain flour
- 2 tablespoons Self raising flour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 egg
Decorations
- 300ml carton thickened cream whipped
- Chocolate flavoured topping
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1. Preheat oven to moderate 170degrees/150 fan forced. Line 6 hole texas or 12 hole standard muffin pan with paper cases
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, the water, liquer and coffee in small saucepan, stir over low heat until smooth
3. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool 15 minutes. Whisk in sifted flours and cocoa, then egg (at this stage it will look like liquidey dark chocolate ganache). Divide mixture among cases.
4. Bake large cakes for about 1 hour, small cakes about 50 minutes (I baked my regular sized cupcakes for 30 minutes and they came out perfectly so I’d suggest checking after 30 minutes as I’ve found that the cooking times in the Womens Weekly cupcake book are sometimes wrong). Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.
5. Remove cases from cakes. Place cakes in coffee cups, top with cream. (I found that my cups were quite a bit bigger than the cupcakes so I sliced extra ones up and “padded out” the base and sides with these pieces as I didn’t want a huge amount of cream in the side gaps).
6. Place chocolate topping in piping bag with small plain tube, pipe spiral over cream, feather and fan cakes by pulling a skewer through the spirals or dust cakes with cocoa or chocolate powder.
7. Sit back and relax with magazine!
From the Womens Weekly Cupcakes book
