Name: Chocolate cupcakes with coffee cream filling
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: For the cupcakes; 300g plain flour; 400g sugar; 70g unsweetened cocoa powder; 1 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda; 1 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 250ml vegetable oil; 250ml strong brewed coffee, cooled; 3 large eggs; 250g sour cream; 1 tsp vanilla essence; Coffee cream filling, recipe follows; Coffee buttercream icing, recipe follows; Chocolate-covered coffee beans, for garnish, optional; For the coffee cream filling; 90g cream cheese, softened; 60ml coffee-flavoured liqueur; 250g frozen chocolate-flavoured whipped topping, thawed; For the coffee buttercream icing; 110g butter, softened; 370g icing sugar; 60ml strong brewed coffee, cooled

Cupcakes:
1) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line muffin pans with paper cases and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Add oil, coffee and eggs. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

3) Spoon the batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake until a tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 16-18 minutes. Let them cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool completely on wire racks.

4) Spoon coffee cream filling into a squeeze bottle with a long narrow tip. Insert the tip into the top of cupcake and squeeze about 1 tablespoon of filling into centre of each cupcake.

5) Spread the coffee buttercream icing evenly over the cupcakes and garnish with chocolate-covered coffee beans, if desired.

Coffee cream filling:
In a small bowl, whip the cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Slowly add the liqueur and fold in the whipped topping. Cover and chill.

Coffee buttercream icing:
In a medium bowl, beat the butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the icing sugar, beating until smooth, then beat in the coffee.