As you have hopefully seen, I had a trail at a deli in Shoreditch for the position of part-time cake maker. Well, I got the job! And what better way to celebrate than to share the winning recipe. So here it is, cardamom and coffee cupcakes with piped coffee and chocolate buttercream.

Recipe (makes 12)
Ingredients for the cakes:
80g butter, softened
300g caster sugar
240g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp ground cardamom
200ml milk
2 eggs
2 tblsp ‘Camp’ coffee and chicory essence
For the chocolate buttercream icing:
250g icing sugar
80g butter, softened
40g cocoa
40ml milk
For the coffee buttercream icing:
250g icing sugar
80g butter, softened
1 tblsp ‘Camp’ coffee and chicory essence
splash of milk.
chocolate covered coffee beans or similar to decorate (optional)
You will also need a twelve hole muffin tin lined with paper cases and a piping bag and nozzles (optional)
Method for the cupcakes:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4.
Beat the butter and sugar together to form a crumby texture, then add all the other dry ingredients and mix together. In a separate jug measure and whisk together the milk, eggs and coffee essence before combining them with the dry mixture a third at a time. Beat until you have an even consistency but do not over do it.
Spoon the mixture in to the paper cases (I prefer to return it all to the jug and then pour it in from there) and bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-25 minutes. Test by inserting a skewer into the centre of a couple of cakes – it should come out clean. Cool on a wire rack and in the mean time make the buttercream icing.

Method for the buttercream icing:
To ice these cupcakes I made two separate flavours of buttercream and swirled them together through a piping bag. If you prefer you could just choose one flavour or even substitute some of the milk in the chocolate buttercream recipe with 1 tblsp of coffee essence so that you have two flavours in one icing. Bear in mind that you may have to adjust the quantities. If you do not want to use a piping bag or do not have one then you can apply the icing with a knife. If you are going to use this method then you will not need so much icing, 300g icing sugar and 100g of butter should be enough (split between the two flavours if you wish).
To make the icing as I did, beat together all the ingredients for the coffee and the chocolate icing separately until you have two smooth pastes which holds its shape. You may need to add more icing sugar or milk to get the right consistency. Tip one icing into the other and swirl together with a maximum of two or three strokes. Once the cakes are cool carefully transfer the icing to a piping bag, being careful not to mix it up too much, and pipe each cake. Finish with a couple of chocolate covered coffee beans on top
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