The Hummingbird Trail: Mocha Cupcakes

I received the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book for my birthday from some incredibly thoughtful friends, and it wasn't until I started flipping through the gorgeous, glossy pages of the book that I realised that I'd never actually owned a cookbook until now. In honour of this little "first" of mine, I've decided to start the Hummingbird Trail - to capture those moments inspired by the book. 

I'd been dying to try a recipe, any recipe, and my brother's birthday seemed like the perfect excuse to bake some cupcakes. He's a coffee lover, this little (well, alright, not so little anymore) brother of mine so it was a matter of choosing between the handful of coffee-based recipes featured in the book. I thought middle ground would be a safe bet, so mocha it was. 


 
  




The first thing that struck me was how light the cupcakes were, just the way I like them.

As always, I employed some caution when whipping up the batch of frosting, always wary about how much sugar the recipe calls for and how much sugar the frosting actually needs but the proportions for this recipe seemed pretty much spot on. I love how the instructions extend to the actual act of frosting the cake, with simple steps to follow and some illustrations to help with the visualisation (though I do admit that I'm going to need quite a bit of practice to get the signature swirl right).

Mocha cupcakes - check. Now to look for some whoopie pie tins.