Mocha Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

These mocha cupcakes are a delicious combination of coffee and chocolate! Turn them Irish - and top them with a decadent Bailey's buttercream! Perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. If you asked my boyfriend, he would probably tell you its his favourite holiday. Lol. A day to drink beer and listen to Irish music - he's in.  I knew that I couldn't let St. Patrick's Day pass without making something for the occasion. I used Guinness last year for these brownie sundaes - so this year I wanted to make a dessert with Baileys. Switch things up a bit!

So I know that bakers always say "Trust me! You can't taste the coffee at all!" when we tell you to add coffee to your chocolate cakes. It's true - coffee enhances the chocolate flavour and typically you cannot taste it. However - that was not the goal with these cupcakes. I wanted a hint of coffee flavour to complement the Bailey's buttercream.  So, brew your coffee extra strong! Like double or triple the amount of coffee grounds you would normally use when making coffee. Trust me :) 

Mocha Cupcakes 

Ingredients 

½ c strong hot coffee

¼ c cocoa powder

1 ½  c flour

½  tsp baking powder

½  tsp baking soda

½  tsp salt

½  c butter, cut into cubes

½  c sugar

½ c brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

¼ c sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cupcake pan with liners. In a small bowl, whisk together coffee and cocoa powder. In another medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

In a small sauce pan, over medium heat combine the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Stir occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted. Remove from heat and pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. On medium, beat butter & sugar mixture until it begins to thicken (approx. 4-5 mins). You want to ensure the mixture has cooled slightly before adding your eggs. Add eggs one at a time, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add in vanilla and coffee mixture. Mix until incorporated.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture. Stir in the sour cream. Mix until just incorporated.

Divide batter evenly into prepared cupcake liners. Fill liners 1/2-2/3rds of the way full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Baileys Buttercream

Directions

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy

Beat in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until well combined. Beat in Baileys

Ingredients

1 c butter, at room temperature

3 c powdered sugar 

¼ c Baileys

Banana Bundt Cake

A delicious exceptionally moist banana bundt cake with a cinnamon sugar topping. Easy to make and perfect for any occasion! 

Does anyone else's freezer fill up with over ripe bananas incredibly quickly? Or is that just me? Either way, I had a lot of bananas to use up! So of course I decided to make a banana bundt cake! I have been on a bit of a bundt cake kick lately! I just can't help myself they are relatively easy to make and they just look so pretty! This banana bundt cake is moist and delicious. It is great paired with coffee, tea or a large glass of cold milk. I love the pretty shimmer that the cinnamon sugar topping gives the bundt cake. It elevates the bundt cake making it perfect to serve when you have guests coming over.

Banana Bundt Cake

Ingredients 

¾ c butter

2 c sugar

3-4 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ c sour cream

Cinnamon Sugar Topping (Optional) 

1 tsp cinnamon 

3 tbsp sugar 

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan, set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in bananas until well combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the side of the bowl after each addition. Add in vanilla. 

In a medium sized bowl, sift together: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, being careful not to over mix. Stir in sour cream.

Transfer batter to prepared bundt pan. Use a spatula to evenly distribute the batter in the pan. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Mix together cinnamon and sugar to create cinnamon sugar topping. Top bundt cake with cinnamon sugar right before serving.

Breakup Brownies

These break up brownies are perfect for your Galentine's day celebration! A delicious combination of blondie and brownies topped with a eggless cookie dough make these bars hard to resist!

Okay! Let's talk about these breakup brownies!  These breakup brownies were inspired by half-baked ice cream. I was eating a pint of half baked a couple of weeks ago, and I thought how great would this be as baked dessert.  I knew I needed to include brownies and cookie dough into the final product -  I was like how do you make this up and keep the cookie dough unbaked? Obviously I was having a moment.

I wanted to make sure I also represented the vanilla ice cream - so that's where the blondie comes in! I decided to swirl blondie and brownie batters and top the finish product with an eggless cookie dough! Once the recipe was perfected, I was having some troubling coming up with a name. I mean half baked brownie bars just didn't seem to work - I thought it would be a bit confusing. As a joke I started calling them breakup brownies. I mean who doesn't want brownies and cookie dough when they are going through a breakup?

Breakup Brownies

Ingredients

For the blondie

⅓ c butter, melted

1 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

½ c flour

For the brownie

⅓ c butter, melted

½ c sugar

½ c brown sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

¼ c cocoa powder

¼ c flour

For the cookie dough

½ c butter, softened

½ c brown sugar

½ c sugar  

½  c flour

1 tbsp heavy cream

1/4c mini chocolate chips

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a 8x8 inch baking tin with butter and dust with flour. Set aside.

For the blondies: In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugar until combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition. Add flour and salt to the wet ingredients. Whisk until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan, using an offset spatula evenly spread batter in pan.

For the brownies: In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and brown sugar until combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition. Add cocoa powder, flour and salt to the wet ingredients. Whisk until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan, using a butter knife marble brownie batter with the blondie batter.

Bake for 28-35 minutes. Top will be shiny and edges should be set. Allow brownies to cool in the pan.

For the cookie dough:
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and heavy cream. Beat in flour until just combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Once the brownies have cooled completely, evenly spread the cookie dough on top. Cut brownies into squares. Enjoy!