Espresso Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Coffee and I have a deep and long comradeship. It was one of my favorite Beverages during university days. I could never start my day without having a hot cup of steaming coffee and would have it frequently during exam days when my head would be steaming with pressure! As with coffee is my love for coffee flavored cakes. They are way different from coffee, but I love the hint of coffee flavor that the cake has. I have baked a coffee cake couple of years back, which turned out pretty well, but uses loads of butter and I was unaware of calories and like. I never made that ever since. At times I wish I was still unaware of calories and fat building factors, so that I can use butter free of guilt.

This recipe of Espresso Chocolate Chip Cupcakes comes from one my favorite bloggers- Deeba who blogs at Passionate about baking. I have always admired at her energy and passion when it comes to baking and Blogging. I truly admire her. I love her recipes, her write ups, her photography and herself and I never miss her recipes ever since I discovered her blog. I too have bookmarked loads of recipe from her which I now lost the count! I had bookmarked another recipe for cappuccino cupcakes which just slipped out of my brain until Finla just mentioned it was her favorite cappuccino cupcakes. I should be making that one too sometime soon.

When it comes to the cake, it was just the taste I was looking for; Chocolate, coffee and the buttery base. I just made half the batch and skipped ganache. The cakes were already loaded with chocolate chips and I thought it would leave me with chocolate overdose if I top it up with ganache. But I love ganache and it itched me to add but I skipped it just to cut down a bit of chocolate.

Espresso Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Makes 6-7
Recipe Adapted from Deeba

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup Caster sugar
1 tbsp Coffee powder or ½ a Tbsp Espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ of a large egg
½ cup whole milk, room temperature
1/3cup - ½ (around 100g) cup dark chocolate chips

Preparation:

1.Preheat oven to 180C. Line 6-7 mold muffin tray.

2. With a fork or a balloon whisk , whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Reserve.

3. Mix coffee powder into the milk and stir until dissolved.

4. Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and egg in a mixing bowl.

5. Add the flour mix and milk alternately to the butter mix in three batches and mix well using a wooden spoon until well mixed.

6. Fold in the chocolate chips and spoon into muffin cases upto 2/3 full.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Cool in the tin for about a minute before putting the muffins onto a wire rack to cool completely. Top with ganache if desired. You can see Deeba's chocolate Espresso Ganache in the page.

N.B: I have halved the original recipe. Double the recipe if you want 12-14 cupcakes.