Coffee is tasty… so is cognac, and cupcakes. Why not all three? We show and tell you how to make some delicious coffee and cognac cupcakes.

We’ll cover how to make the coffee and cognac extract, the cakes, and the buttercream frosting! It’s also worth noting that we use our (very well groomed and cleaned) hands to mix rather than spoons; but it’s up to you.

What you will need:

Cakes:

200g butter

200g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

200g self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

2 to 10 teaspoons of your coffee and cognac extract

Coffee and cognac extract:

5 tablespoons of your favourite freshly ground coffee

10 tablespoons of your favourite fine cognac, but any other fairly strong alcoholic drink will work, like scotch

Buttercream:

100g butter

200g icing sugar

2 to 10 teaspoons of your coffee and cognac extract

Equipment:

Coffee strainer

Baking tray

Cupcake cases

2 bowls

Glass

Plastic wrap

Disposable piping bags

Optional:

Piping nozzle

Spoons or spatulas

Preparing the coffee and cognac extract for your cupcakes

The day before making your cupcakes, you’ll want to prepare your coffee and cognac extract; In a saucepan, mix the 5 tablespoons of coffee and 10 tablespoons of cognac together, and heat gently until simmering. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes and take off of the heat, leave to cool down. Then pour this tasty mixture through a coffee strainer and pour it into a glass. Cover this glass with plastic wrap until airtight and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. This lets the taste mature and it is much, much better afterwards.

After a minimum of 12 hours, you can begin your cake mix! Before that though, preheat your oven to 180ºC / gas mark 4.

Making the cupcake mix

To make your cake mix, you first cream the 200g of butter and your 200g of sugar together, do this until it looks light and fluffy. Then, you slowly beat four eggs and the flour together into the margarine and sugar.

Next add 2 to 10 teaspoons of coffee extract to your mixture and mix together to get the mixture perfectly mixed. Remember not to over mix, though, as this strengthens the proteins and leaves you with a batter that will be tough and won’t rise well.

Here I like to transfer the batter into a disposable piping bag to make filling the cake cases easier, but you can do it with a spoon if you prefer. Share between 12 muffin cases and put into your preheated oven for 25 minutes, or 20 if you’re using a fan assisted oven. Remember to check them after 15 minutes!

To make the buttercream, take your softened (not melted!) butter and gradually add icing sugar while gently mixing together until it looks smooth, and has a slightly thick consistency. Then add 2 to 10 teaspoons of your coffee and cognac extract to your buttercream. I used 8.

When the cakes have cooled, cut off any peaks that will disrupt your icing and discard (in your mouth). Here you can use a spoon to cut a hole out of the middle of the cake to fill with icing at a later date, but you don’t need to. Only do this when you are about to decorate or your cakes will dry out.

Take your buttercream and spoon it all into a disposable piping bag, cut the tip off, and go ahead and decorate your cupcakes!