Coffee Walnut Cupcakes

This recipe is for all the coffee lovers out there. Coffee and walnut is such an amazing flavor combination. You are going to love this recipe so much! Moist and fluffy coffee walnut cupcakes, topped with a silky coffee buttercream and crunchy walnuts. Before checking out the recipe, let's talk about a few ingredients :

• Oil : You can use any flavorless oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

• Buttermilk : If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can use regular whole milk mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar.

• Sour cream : It adds a lot of moisture to the cake. But if you don't have sour cream on hand you can use plain yoghurt instead.

• Strong espresso : It's necessary to use strong espresso in this recipe to get a nice coffee flavor. If you don't have strong espresso on hand, you can simply mix 3 tbsp of instant coffee with 7 tbsp of hot water and use it in the cupcakes and frosting.

• Butter : I prefer using unsalted butter because it allows you to adjust the amount of salt however you like. But if you only have salted butter on hand it's completely fine just skip the 1/4 tsp of salt.

• Roasted walnuts : Roasting the walnuts deepens their flavor so, I highly recommend it.

Servings : 12-14

Ingredients :

For coffee walnut cupcakes :

• Flour - 200g

• Caster sugar - 160g

• Baking powder - 1 tsp

• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

• Salt - 1/4 tsp

• Butter - 120g

• Eggs - 120g

• Oil - 40ml

• Sour cream - 60ml

• Buttermilk - 75ml

• Strong espresso - 4 tbsp

• Roasted walnuts - 60g

For coffee buttercream :

• Butter - 120g

• Icing sugar - 240g

• Strong espresso - 2-3 tbsp

• Salt - 1/8 tsp

• Extra walnuts for decorating

Instructions :

For coffee walnut cupcakes :

1. To a large bowl, add flour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix everything well.

2. Add in room temperature butter. The butter should be soft and spreadable.

3. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix it for 2-3 minutes till all dry ingredients and covered in butter. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs.

4. To a separate bowl, add in the eggs, oil, sour cream, buttermilk and espresso. Whisk until everything is combined.

5. Add this mixture to the butter mixture and mix on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes. There should be no lumps and the batter should be a bit fluffy.

6. Roughly chop the roasted walnuts and add them into the batter. Gently fold using a spatula to distribute the walnuts throughout the batter.

7. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl using a spatula to ensure that everything is well combined.

8. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners.

9. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way with the batter using an ice cream scoop or a spoon and bake for 25-30 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

10. Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool completely while we make the buttercream.

For coffee buttercream :

1. Make sure that your butter is at room temperature and is nice and soft before making the buttercream. If the butter is not soft, it won't whip up properly.

2. Add the softened butter to a large bowl and using a hand mixer or a stand mixer whip it for about 5-7 minutes or until it's super fluffy and almost white in color.

3. Sift in half of the icing sugar and mix on a low speed at first then gradually increase the speed and whip for about 2 minutes.

4. Now, sift in rest of the icing sugar and mix again. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl using a spatula to ensure that everything is well combined.

5. Add in the espresso and salt and mix again. Make sure the espresso is completely cool before adding it in or it will melt the frosting.

6. At this stage, if your buttercream is too stiff just add in a bit more espresso or milk.

7. Our buttercream is ready so let's start assembling the cupcakes.

For assembly :

1. Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (or any nozzle of your choice).

2. Make sure your cupcakes have cooled completely before piping or else the buttercream will melt. Pipe a rosette of buttercream on top of each cupcake.

3. Top with walnuts. Serve and enjoy!

4. Keep the cupcakes refrigerated.