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.






I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 






Happy birthday! Today is my husband’s birthday, and he also requested a chocolate cake. I baked him Ina Garten’s Beatty’s chocolate cake. Your chocolate cake may be the one I bake for my birthday later this year. 🙂
beantownbaker — June 17th, 2013 @ 8:48 am
That’s a really good chocolate cake recipe too! Tell your husband happy birthday!
Happy birthday! A no frills chocolate fudge cake sounds perfect 🙂
This looks amazing!! And happy birthday!!!
beantownbaker — June 17th, 2013 @ 9:34 am
Thanks 🙂
Happy Birthday! Noting like a perfectly simple chocolate cake to ring in a new year! This one looks scrumptious!
That is seriously one gorgeous cake!!! I think I’m in love!
happy birthday and thanks so much for the chocolate cake- can’t have too many chocolate cake recipes
beantownbaker — June 18th, 2013 @ 4:02 pm
I couldn’t agree more!
We’re birthday buddies! Hope you had a great day!
Happy Birthday! Your cake looks amazing!!
and if i want to make this 9 x 13?any caveats? i never know if i can just change pan size and oven time/temp?
beantownbaker — June 18th, 2013 @ 4:05 pm
Two 9″ round pans is the same amount of cake batter as a 9×13 pan. I’d probably use the same temp and start checking around the same time. But I would expect it to take longer to bake in the end.
tnx- 9 x 13 is easier to tote
Oh goodness, this looks indulgent! I need to make this for my husband as soon as I can!
Happy birthday! This cake is to die for- looks so chocolatey and fudgey. Hope you had a great day!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 7:13 am
Thanks! I had a great birthday this year.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I am making your birthday cake for my big day!
Thanks!
beantownbaker — June 23rd, 2013 @ 7:56 pm
Happy birthday tomorrow!! Hope you enjoy the cake as much as I did.
Wow – this cake looks so good! I am always looking for chocolatecake recipes to try – so glad to have stumbled on your blog!
beantownbaker — July 5th, 2013 @ 9:55 am
Glad you found me!
I just made this for my mom and brothers Birthday tomorrow 🙂 I will come back and let you know how mine turned out 🙂 thanks for the recipe and happy late Birthday!
beantownbaker — August 4th, 2013 @ 6:42 pm
Definitely let me know how it goes!
The cake turned out amazing and was a huge hit! Most of the kids weren’t a huge fan but i don’t think they have learned to appreciate dark chocolate 🙂
beantownbaker — August 5th, 2013 @ 7:14 am
Glad it was a success (for the adults!)