I created this recipe months ago. Like, when Autumn started to arrive and it was completely appropriate to post season-inspired coffee beverage cupcakes. Then life got in the way and I never posted it. But because I spent so much time photographing and styling these photos, I think they deserve to be on the blog. Who cares if it’s February? Make them for a Valentine’s Day brunch!
Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes):
Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery – Cake Days
80g vegan spread
200g golden caster sugar
240g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
240ml cold coffee (I use decaf)
1 splash vanilla
1/2 cup soya yoghurt
1 tbsp egg replacer
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
250g icing sugar
160g vegan spread
1 splash vanilla
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases of your choice.
2. In a large bowl or a standing mixer, whisk together the 80g of spread, caster sugar, flour, baking powder,salt, coffee, first splash of vanilla, yoghurt, egg replacer and spices. Make sure that the batter is smooth, but don’t over mix it.
3. Divide the batter between your tins. Bake for around 20 minutes, checking frequently.
4. Remove your cupcakes from the oven and let cool.
5. Once your cakes have cooled, beat the remaining spread with the icing sugar and vanilla. I like to mix the spread and sugar with a spoon first – this helps to prevent the mess icing sugar likes to make. Once it has emulsified, you can easily whip the frosting on high speed without wrecking your kitchen.
6. Pipe your icing onto the cupcakes.
For the leaves, I used a small amount of sugar paste (I find the Waitrose own brand to be the best, along with Cake Craft World’s Sattina), which I divided into three parts and coloured red, yellow and orange respectively. I then lightly kneaded the three colours back together until I had a marbled effect, rolled them out and used a Lakeland Leaf Cutter to cut out my decorations. I let them firm up on a baking rack over night to give them some shape, and then placed them on top of the icing.
Enjoy!
