Caramel Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

I was up in the loft locating the plastic eggs ready for an Easter egg hunt when I came across a box of Easter cake decorations that I had completely forgotten about. It was the perfect excuse to make some cakes and decorate them for Easter (obviously they will be eaten long before Easter though!)

I popped a caramel egg in the middle of the cakes as a nice surprise, although they could be left out, or replaced with a mini creme egg. I topped them with my all time favourite cream cheese & Nutella frosting, making these very indulgent and best eaten with a spoon!

Caramel Chocolate Easter Cupcakes - makes 10/12

cupcakes
100ml boiling water
5-10g Instant coffee granules (depending on how much coffee flavour you want them to have) - I used Beanies Caramel Coffee
35g Cocoa powder
190g Caster Sugar
115g Plain Flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Egg
60ml Hazelnut oil
125ml Milk
Galaxy caramel mini eggs

Nutella frosting
300g Full fat cream cheese
150g Nutella

• Mix the boiling water, coffee and cocoa powder together until smooth
• Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda and salt together in a large bowl or jug
• Beat the egg, oil and milk together, add the chocolate mixture & beat well
• Beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well
• Pour the cake batter into the cupcake cups until just over half full
• Push a caramel egg gently into the centre of batter, making sure that it is covered by the mixture
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow the cakes to cool fully on a wire rack
• Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese & Nutella together
• Decorate the cupcakes with the frosting

This is my entry into the Beanies Easter Baking Challenge - to see other entries just follow the hashtag #BeaniesBakeOff on Twitter.

Beanies Coffee comes in a variety of flavours - our personal favourite is the French Vanilla and I look forward to trying the Cinnamon & Hazelnut.

I was sent jars of coffee for the purpose of this challenge

Caffe Cagliari Espresso in your own home

I do love a good cup of coffee in the morning, and I feel ready to take on the day once I've had a freshly brewed cup - whether it be a cappuccino or latte. On holiday I always have an espresso as they seem to taste so much better whilst sat at a café table with a pastry, in the sunshine, watching the world go by.

Caffe Cagliari is a 100 year old family company which started after Ambrogio Cagliari spent many years in Brazil and then went on to open his first coffee roasting and tasting shop in Modena, Italy, in 1909. The Cagliari family have passed on their knowledge of the origins of coffee and their production secrets and experience down four generations, and Alessandra Cagliari, the great great grand daughter of the founder handles the marketing and packaging today.

Every single cup is an exquisite masterpiece, the result of more than 100 years of knowledge and tradition. The qualitative and sensory standards of Espresso have been certified by the Italian Espresso National Institute (I.N.E.I.), which protects and promotes Italian Espresso

To make a good cup of espresso more freely available to everyone Caffe Cagliari now make coffee capsules which are compatible with Nespresso machines, available to buy online here.

Once you have some freshly brewed espresso you may want to just enjoy it as it is, or make some Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes as per my recipe below.

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes - makes approx 11-12

cupcakes
100ml freshly brewed Espresso 
35g Cocoa powder
190g Caster Sugar
115g Plain Flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Egg
60ml Sunflower oil
125ml Milk

Nutella frosting
300g Full fat cream cheese
150g Nutella

Decorations & espresso drizzle
Chocolate coffee beans
Nutella
Freshly brewed espresso

• Mix the espresso and cocoa powder together until smooth
• Stir the remaining dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Beat in the egg, sunflower oil, milk & chocolate espresso mix for 2 minutes until smooth
• The batter will be quite thin but that's ok
• Ladle into the cupcake cases until 2/3 full
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow the cakes to cool fully on a wire rack
• Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese & Nutella together
• Make the drizzle by adding espresso to a spoonful of Nutella a little at a time until the required consistency is reached
• decorate the cupcakes with the frosting, chocolate coffee beans and espresso drizzle

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