Eggless Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes / Mini Cupcakes / Muffins

[Video update on 4th March:

 ]

Who likes a hint of coffee in a moist, luscious, chocolate cupcake? I do! And so, when I was trying a batch of mini chocolate cupcakes last month, I went ahead and added some coffee in it. I loved the result and thought of sharing with you all. For this post, I made regular muffins, but given a choice, I'd go for a mini muffin any day. They are cute, just a tad bigger than bite-sized and, they've always been my favourite form of cake! If you do not have a mini muffin tray, you can use a regular muffin tray, but like I have said in my earlier posts here and here, do try to get your hands on one!

 I have not iced these cupcakes because they taste great as they are. The recipe is slightly modified from my earlier post on eggless chocolate cake. I halved the recipe and made some minor changes. If you want to make only chocolate cupcakes or just an eggless chocolate cake, then you should definitely try that recipe.

Ingredient:

1 cup water

1 ½ tsp coffee powder

1 ½ cups maida or all purpose flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 ¼cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup oil

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (or vinegar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

* Preferably caster sugar. If using regular granulated sugar, grind in a dry mixer for a couple of seconds. This is to dissolve sugar easily later. Optional step.

Method:

Bring water to a light boil and dissolve the coffee powder in it. Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile in a bowl, mix maida, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. [ Run them through a sieve if they have lumps].
In a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients - coffee solution, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, Add sugar and blend with a hand-held electric mixture till sugar dissolves. To this add the dry maida mixture little by little and mix thoroughly to get a smooth mixture. Blend for a few seconds.

Preheat the oven to 170  ͦC [340  ͦF].  

Line a muffin or mini muffin tray with paper liners. Pour in the batter till they are 2/3rd full.

Bake for about 20  to 22 minutes for muffins (15 to 18 minutes for mini muffins) or till fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

NOTE: If the cupcakes are overdone, the edges tend to become crisp and stick to the paper liner.  Every oven differs in baking time so keep an eye. Once they are done, leave them to cool completely and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes. Otherwise they may not come off easily from the paper liner.

You can easily double the recipe if you are looking to make lots of cupcakes. Infact I made a huge batch of these cuties for my son's birthday. The picture below is of a mini muffin tray and of the cute li'l muffins ready to be arranged for the party on their cupcake stand.

Go ahead and ice these cupcakes with icing of your choice and sprinkle some sprinklers on them if you like them pretty. As for me, I was content with these cuties adorning the dining table during the party. A proud moment indeed :)!