Mazola Mochaccino Cupcakes

 

If you have cooked or baked anything in your kitchen, chances are you have used some type of cooking oil either in liquid form (canola, olive or peanut), solid (Crisco or lard), or spray (Pam). Have you ever used corn oil? I will confess, I have never cooked or baked with corn oil, so when the folks at Mazola contacted me to see if I might want to try their product, I said “Sure!”

Mazola is running a campaign for healthier cooking and are challenging kitchen gurus to create a dish from their list of recipes or come up with something brand new to share with readers. I had a hard time choosing from such a varied collection. I wanted to try many of them, but finally settled on a baked good when my eyes saw their Mochaccino Cupcakes!

Coffee and chocolate? How could I go wrong with that?

I did set out to make the original recipe, but as you may come to learn, I tend to tweak as I go and this recipe was no exception. I added a little spin to give the taster a yummy surprise! Hope you enjoy it!

Mochaccino Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups flour + 1 tsp.

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. espresso powder

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

¾ cup buttermilk

½ cup Mazola oil

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

12 Tbsp. chocolate pudding

 

Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. espresso powder

1 tsp. cocoa powder

¼ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

 

To make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Line muffin pan with paper liners.

 

Combine flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Stir to combine well.

 

Break or cut chocolate into chunks. Place into microwave safe bowl and melt chocolate in 30 second increments until smooth. This usually will take 2 – 3 attempts. If you have a few lumps of chocolate, that is okay, when stirred it will melt completely.

 

In separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth. Add to dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Mix 1 tsp. of flour into the mini chips (this will help them stay suspended in the batter rather than sink to the bottom of cupcake) and fold into the batter. Divide batter into lined paper cups.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick tests clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

 

Once cooled, take a small knife and cut a hole, ¾ of the way down in the center of the cupcake. Be sure not to go all the way to bottom! Carefully remove plug and fill with 1 Tbsp. chocolate pudding. Return cake plug and press down until even with top.

 

Frosting:

Combine sugar, cocoa powder & espresso powder.

 

In separate mixing bowl, cream butter. Add sugar mixture. While mixing, add vanilla and milk. Beat on medium speed until frosting comes together and is creamy.

 

I was pleasantly surprised at how moist these cakes turned out! Good enough to eat without the frosting! But who wants to skip the frosting?! The pudding center is a nice balance of chocolate to the coffee flavor. If you don’t want pudding, you don’t have to add it, I just thought it would taste good and it seemed to be a hit with the family, so I went with it.

 

I’m going to try this with my trusty banana bread recipe and see how if it turns up the moisture factor.

Really, the possibilities are endless!