One thing you should know about me is that I HATE to waste food. It just kills me to throw things away. Honestly, I could even be called a “food pusher” at times to make Matt eat whatever I made that night. I confess to wrapping up things I know we will not eat, just in case, because you never know, we could be in the mood for it later. Sadly, this usually results in the fridge having old leftovers in the back corner and a take-the-garbage-out now situation. Well on the flip side, this, um, trait of mine sometimes, no usually, makes for a trip to see my parents, grandparents, or brother with plenty of containers filled with anything from pasta to banana bread. They accept with smiles.
So to get to my point for today, the other night I was expecting company and decided to have a large pot of coffee ready to brew. This means, for those of you DD and Starbucks only people, you have to pour 12 cups of water into a coffee machine and fill a filter with coffee granules. Well getting ahead of the game here didn’t exactly work in my favor…..company didn’t come and I couldn’t possibly drink 12 cups of coffee by myself. I mean, I suppose I could, but then my eye would be twitching for the next 15 years! So since I couldn’t just pour the coffee down the drain like a semi-normal person, I poured it into a jar and refrigerated it for some sort of future use. The next day I googled and binged recipes with coffee, this resulted in a gazillion coffee cake recipes, a few marinades, and something called red-eye gravy that I plan to investigate at a later time. Anyway, I knew I had cake mix in the pantry and a BBQ to go to later in the week so I wanted to have something sweet to bring, besides myself, haha. Well Viola! I came across a recipe for cappuccino cupcakes and had everything minus the coffee liqueur it called for. I altered it a tad by using devil’s food cake mix rather than dark chocolate cake mix and butter cream frosting mixed with coffee rather than vanilla mixed with the liqueur.
They came out delicious but, in my opinion and Matt’s, the coffee flavor got lost. Next time, I will brew stronger coffee and maybe use vanilla frosting since that lends itself to taking on other flavors, in this case coffee. Well, they say you live and you learn, I say you cook and you tweak!
So to get to my point for today, the other night I was expecting company and decided to have a large pot of coffee ready to brew. This means, for those of you DD and Starbucks only people, you have to pour 12 cups of water into a coffee machine and fill a filter with coffee granules. Well getting ahead of the game here didn’t exactly work in my favor…..company didn’t come and I couldn’t possibly drink 12 cups of coffee by myself. I mean, I suppose I could, but then my eye would be twitching for the next 15 years! So since I couldn’t just pour the coffee down the drain like a semi-normal person, I poured it into a jar and refrigerated it for some sort of future use. The next day I googled and binged recipes with coffee, this resulted in a gazillion coffee cake recipes, a few marinades, and something called red-eye gravy that I plan to investigate at a later time. Anyway, I knew I had cake mix in the pantry and a BBQ to go to later in the week so I wanted to have something sweet to bring, besides myself, haha. Well Viola! I came across a recipe for cappuccino cupcakes and had everything minus the coffee liqueur it called for. I altered it a tad by using devil’s food cake mix rather than dark chocolate cake mix and butter cream frosting mixed with coffee rather than vanilla mixed with the liqueur.
They came out delicious but, in my opinion and Matt’s, the coffee flavor got lost. Next time, I will brew stronger coffee and maybe use vanilla frosting since that lends itself to taking on other flavors, in this case coffee. Well, they say you live and you learn, I say you cook and you tweak!
Cappuccino Cupcakes
Serves: 18-22
Adapted from: GroupRecipes.com
OBJ: TCW be able to use up the leftover coffee she brewed
Ingredients:
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 1/3 C strong brewed or instant coffee at room temperature
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 container (12 ounces buttercream frosting)
2 tbsp coffee liqueur (optional)
Grated chocolate, grate half of a 3 or 4 ounce milk, dark chocolate or espresso chocolate candy bar on the large holes of a standing grater
Additional coffee
Procedures:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line regular size muffin pans with paper muffin cup liners
2. Beat cake mix, coffee, oil and eggs with mixer at low speed for 30 seconds. Then, beat at medium speed for 2 minutes
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups filling 2/3 full 4. Bake 20-24 min or until toothpick comes out clean
5. Cool in pans for 10 minutes
6. Remove from pans and cool
7. Combine frosting and 2 tbsp cooled coffee
8. Before frosting, poke about 10 holes in cupcake with toothpick. Pour 1 to 2 tsp liqueur over top of each cupcake, if desired
9. Frost and sprinkle with chocolate
10. Place in refrigerator to set for at least 30-45 minutes before bringing to room temperature for serving
 |
| Infamous leftover coffee! |
Loved the story.... Sooooo happy to be the recipient of your leftovers:):):)
ReplyDelete