White chocolate mocha cupcakes

The theme for this month’s Cupcake Hero is coffee. Since white chocolate mocha is one of the favorites of the judge this month, I decided to make white chocolate mocha cupcakes. After making these cupcakes, I wasn’t satisfied with the flavor… To clarify, everyone loved the taste of this cupcake, they just didn’t taste white-chocolate-mocha-ey. They tasted gingerbread-ey. I plan to make another cupcake to enter into the Cupcake Hero.

White Chocolate Mocha cupcake (adapted from White Chocolate Cupcake in Crazy about Cupcakes – original recipe shown below with my changes in Italics) – makes 24
2/3 cup milk
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips – I used 4 oz white chocolate + 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup water – I omitted the water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp instant espresso, divided

Preheat oven to 325. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.

Combine the milk and vinegar in a cup. Set aside for at least 5 minutes. Combine the vanilla extract with 1/2 Tbsp instant espresso and set aside.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

Combine 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and the water in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until melted, stirring continuously. Here, I used a double boiler to melt the 4 oz of white chocolate.

Add the vanilla and white chocolate mixture to the creamed mixture.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and 1.5 Tbsp of instant espresso.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk-and-vinegar mixture, beating for 1 minutes after each addition. Fold in the remaining white chocolate chips. Note: to prevent the chips from all sinking to the bottom of the cupcakes, roll them around in a bowl with 2 Tbsp flour prior to adding them to the batter.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

For the White chocolate buttercream, I used the same recipe that I have used before for the White Chocolate Blueberry cupcakes I made last summer. I sprinkled the cupcakes with some ground nutmeg. I think this may have also contributed to the gingerbread-ey flavor.