Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes with Honeycomb and Chocolate Sauce
These cupcakes have a real kick from cold brew coffee. You can replace that with instant espresso powder if you prefer. The honeycomb and chocolate sauce are both optional but they add an extra layer of deliciousness!
a little butter and flour to grease the muffin tinor use cupcake cases
Coffee buttercream
250g| 8.8oz icing sugar
85g| 3oz unsalted butter at room temperature
1-2tbspdouble cream or milk
1tbspcold brew coffee
1tspvanilla paste
For the honeycomb
200g| 7oz sugar
5tbspgolden syrup
2tspbicarbonate of soda
a little butter to grease the tin
Instructions
To make the honeycomb, grease and line a square 20cm/8in tin. Live with baking paper and grease the paper as well. Put all the ingredients in a deep saucepan and stir over medium low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat slightly so that the caramel comes to a boil and turns a deep amber colour. Turn the heat off and beat in the baking soda - the honeycomb will bubble up so be careful it is extremely hot. Pour into the prepared tray and allow to cool completely until it sets. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Grease two silicone muffin tins with butter (if you have trustworthy ones - they can be sticky!) or line with cupcake cases.
Put the walnuts, honeycomb and one tablespoon of flour in a mini food chopper and pulse until finely ground.
Add the flour, sugar, the walnut/honeycomb, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk. Whisk on low speed to mix the ingredients together.
Add the cubed butter and whisk until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the eggs and whisk briefly until they are incorporated.
Combine the sour cream, cold brew coffee and vanilla and add to the mixing bowl. Whisk for 3 minutes at maximum speed until the batter is smooth. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is well mixed.
Divide the batter into the muffin tin and bake for about 25 minutes. The cupcakes are ready when springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack, run a knife around the muffin tin edge to loosen and then gently turn the cupcakes out of the tins. Leave them to cool completely before frosting.
Place the icing sugar, butter, coffee and vanilla in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the flat blade. Start mixing on the lowest speed setting, gradually increasing the speed once the ingredients are combined.
Increase the speed to maximum and beat together for 4-5 minutes until frosting is light and fluffy. Add the double cream and continue to beat together until incorporated. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a French tip or star tip.
Pipe the buttercream over the cupcakes. Drizzle with a little chocolate sauce and decorate with a few shards of honeycomb.
Notes
To turn this into a layer cake, divide the batter between 3x 15cm /6in greased and lined cake tins. Bake for 25-28minutes. You may want to double the buttercream recipe if you intend to cover the cake with frosting.