Our espresso cupcake is studded with dark chocolate chips, flavoured with a hint of brandy and topped with an incredible mascarpone frosting. Tiramisu literally means ‘pick me up’, which couldn’t describe the effects of this cupcake better!
muffin pan lined with 12 muffin cases or mini-cupcake pan lined with 24 mini cupcake cases
Makes 12 regular or 24 tiny
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/ Gas 4.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of/baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and ground espresso in a mixing bowl.
Put the sugar, oil, yogurt, milk, eggs, brandy and chocolate chips in another bowl and whisk well with a balloon whisk. Add this wet mixture to the sifted dry ingredients and fold in gently using a large metal spoon. Do not overmix.
Divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or a little less for tiny cupcakes. They should be well risen and a skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
While the cupcakes are cooling down, make the espresso whip.
Put the cream, sugar and half the ground espresso in a bowl and whisk with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form – don’t overwhisk otherwise the cream will split or become grainy.
In a separate bowl, put the mascarpone and remaining ground espresso and whisk with the electric hand mixer until smooth. Add more coffee to taste, if you like.
Transfer a little of the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture and fold in to loosen. Now add all the mascarpone mixture to the whipped cream and fold in gently until well mixed. Refrigerate for 1–2 hours, or until firm enough to pipe.
Spread the frosting over the cupcakes using a spatula, or spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle/tip and pipe it on top of the cupcakes. Top with 2 chocolate-covered coffee beans.