Coffee Shot Cup Cakes

by
Photography © Georgia Glynn Smith.

Photography © Georgia Glynn Smith.

Bake Off winner 2013 Frances Quinn shares her Fairtrade Coffee Shot ‘Cup’ Cakes. Baked and served in take-away coffee cups, they will bring out your inner barista.

Makes: 12 small Cakes

What You’ll Need:

For the cakes

  • 3 tbsp Fairtrade instant coffee
  • 3 tbsp freshly boiled hot water
  • 3 tbsp whole milk
  • 150g butter, softened
  • 150g light muscovado sugar
  • 3 eggs (at room temperature)
  • 150g self-raising flour
  • 150g walnuts, toasted and chopped (see p.82)

For the coffee syrup

  • ½ tbsp instant coffee
  • 50ml boiling water
  • 50g caster sugar
  • ½ tbsp coffee liqueur, such as Tia Maria, optional

For the topping

  • 250g mascarpone
  • Few drops of vanilla extract
  • 50g icing sugar
  • Dash of milk or cream, if needed

To decorate

  • Cocoa powder

Equipment

  • 12-hole muffin tin
  • 12 espresso-sized (115ml/4oz) paper cups – ideally kraft ripple, as the outer rippled layer will conceal any butteriness that can soak through from the cake through the inner cardboard.
  • Cocktail stick
  • Medium paintbrush
  • Coffee-bean stencil or other stencil, optional

What To Do:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Line the muffin tin with the cups.
  • Mix the coffee with the hot water, then stir in the milk. Set aside to cool. Using a hand-held electric whisk, or in a free-standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for 5–10 minutes or until very light and creamy. The mixture will turn from a rich toffee brown to a pale café-au-lait shade. Break the eggs into a mug or jug and beat with a fork. Gradually add the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Should the mixture look like it’s curdling, add a spoonful of the flour. Sift in the flour and fold in until just combined. Finally, stir through the coffee and chopped walnuts.
  • Spoon the mixture into the paper cups and bake for 15–20 minutes or until the cakes have risen and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
  • While the cakes are baking, make the syrup. Put the coffee in a small pan, add the boiling water and stir to dissolve the granules. Stir in the sugar. Set the pan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for a few minutes or until the sugar is completely dissolved and you are left with a runny syrup. Remove from the heat and stir in the liqueur, if using.
  • Once the cakes are baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes. During this time, prick them all over with a cocktail stick and brush over the coffee syrup using a paintbrush or pastry brush, allowing the syrup to soak into the sponge. Use about ½ tablespoon syrup per cup. Remove the cakes from the tin, still in their cups, and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
  • Put the mascarpone and vanilla in a bowl and sift in the icing sugar. Beat together until creamy and well combined, adding a dash of milk or cream to slacken the mix slightly, if necessary. Spoon some on to each cake and spread level with a palette knife. Sift the cocoa on top, either all over or through a coffee-bean stencil to create some barista art.

Recipe created by Frances Quinn, an extract taken from Quinntessential Baking by Frances Quinn (Bloomsbury £25.00), for Fairtrade Fortnight (29 Feb – 13 March). This year, The Fairtrade Foundation, is asking the British public to sit down for breakfast and stand up for farmers. By sharing a Fairtrade breakfast with your family or friends, you can help support farmers and workers put food on their tables. Visit www.fairtrade.org.uk for more information.

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