Week 1: Espresso Fudge Cupcakes

Abby's cupcakes got the challenge off to a great start!

Hello cupcake blog readers. I'm Abby, and I made the first batch of cupcake for our cupcake challenge at work: Espresso Fudge Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese icing. I've made loads of cupcakes in my few short years on this world, but only once before had I made the cake from scratch. Mixes are just too delicious. But I was excited to try a recipe from scratch. And I was pleased to find out that these were pretty simple and turned out great! I will definitely be making these again. I'm not sure if I would put the chocolate chips in the batter next time, because they all fell to the bottom and sort of stuck to the liners. Speaking of the batter--it was DELICIOUS! It had more of a coffee flavor than the cupcakes ended up having. They didn't have too much of a coffee flavor, so my kids even ate them. 



Inside the espresso fudge cupcake.



The frosting was pretty delicious, too! I usually make cream cheese frosting w/ half butter and half cream cheese, but I also usually pipe it on pretty thick. I like this all cream cheese recipe when doing just a thin layer of frosting. I put the chocolate chips on top, like in the picture on the website, and I thought it made the cupcakes look adorable. However, to me, the chocolate chip flavor overpowered the cupcake, so I ate them off and then ate the cupcake! I also think if I make this again, I will add some espresso powder to 1/2 of the frosting for the coffee lovers, to give it a little more espresso-ness. All in all, a really great cupcake and I can't wait to try my next assignment (after testing everyone else's for a while, of course!)