Cuppa Coffee Cupcakes

Since I had so many new, wonderful people following Whisk Together, I wanted to share with you my favorite latest item from my kitchen.

Okay, so I ate 3 of these the day I made them… But they were so tasty and you can have them for breakfast, or as a snack, or dessert – so why not try all 3 ways, right? Well, after thorough research I can thoroughly recommend that you can eat these for breakfast OR as a snack OR dessert and be totally happy.

The coffeecake part has a wonderful crumb and swirl throughout it. The topping became crunchier than expected, but that was actually a nice contrast to the soft texture of the coffeecake bottom.

Cuppa Coffee Cupcakes
yield 12

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 cup finely chopped pecans (don’t cry if short on pecans… you can go with 3/4 cup or so and it’ll be fine)
1 Tb. melted butter

Coffeecake:
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (4 oz./8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, room temp.
1 and 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp.
1 cup sour cream, room temp.
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Icing:
1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 and 1/2 Tbs. milk (whole preferred)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. To make the topping: In a small bowl, mix the dry ingredients together: brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and pecans. Stir in the butter until the mixture is moistened and set aside.
2. To make the coffeecake: In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside as well. (I do this part the night before sometimes.)
3. Using the paddle of an electric mixer, cream the butter for about 1 minute, or until light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar. Beat another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla extract.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold in the dry ingredients. Keep folding just until it is incorporated and then stop. Don’t keep mixing or you’ll have icky gummy cake.
6. Using a standard 12-cup muffin pan, line the cups with cupcake liners or spray thoroughly. Fill each tin about halfway. I used a 1 Tablespoon scoop. Then sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of the reserved topping mixture on each muffin. Next, fill the rest of the cup up with batter. I used a 2 Tablespoon scoop for this. Sprinkle another heaping teaspoon or 2 tsp. of topping. Gently press into batter.
7. Bake 30-35 minutes or they pass the toothpick test. Cool completely.
8. To make the Icing: Mix all the ingredients and put into a pastry bag or a ziplock bag with one corner cut off. Drizzle and Done!

Recipe adapted from TastyKitchen.com