Classic Coffee Loaf and Cupcakes

These loaves and cupcakes are perfectly flavoured with coffee, making it a super mourish treat for adults/coffee lovers. I adapted the recipe from Mary Berry, who baked a whole coffee cake. However, I didn't have a cake tin to hand. So after rooting through my cupboards, I decided instead to make a coffee loaf and cupcakes, which were very much enjoyed :) The batter took minutes to prepare, and was baked and decorated soon after. They are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, or just as a delectable dessert.

Makes one 2lb loaf and 6 cupcakes

Ingredients:

•      225g soft butter or margarine
•    225g light soft brown sugar
•   225g self-raising flour
•   1 tsp baking powder
•   4 eggs
•   4 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water (this takes a while to dissolve but   keep stirring until it has all dissolved)

For the buttercream:

•      175g soft butter
•          350g icing sugar
•      4 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Method:

    1. Preheat your oven to 180c/160c fan/ gas mark 4. Butter and line a 2 lb loaf tin, and place bun cases into a deep 6 hole muffin tin.

   2. If your brown sugar is very solid, blitz in a food processor to fine crumbs (this will make your life a lot easier when creaming). Cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes until light and fluffy (this can be done with a spoon or electric whisk). Add the eggs, flour, baking powder and coffee, and fold in until just combined (when no flour speckles can be seen. Do not overwork).

   3. Pour into the loaf tin until 2/3 full, and place spoonfuls into the muffin cases (about 1-2 tbsp will be fine).

  4. Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, and the loaf for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer (or knife) entered into the loaf/muffin comes out clean, and is springy to the touch. Another interesting way to test if the loaf/muffin has baked is to listen – if you hear a sort-of bubbling/cracking noise, the cake is still baking so requires another 5 minutes or so.

   5. To make the butter cream, beat the butter with the icing sugar and coffee until well combined. If the buttercream seems too loose, add some more icing sugar. Refrigerate until ready to use.

   6. Carefully slice the loaf into three layers. The easiest way to do this is to use a serrated knife and turn the loaf as you slice. Place spoonfuls of the coffee buttercream on each layer of the loaf and spread evenly using a palette knife (to about 1/2cm thickness).  Stack the loaf layers (cake-buttercream-cake-buttercream-cake).

     7. Cover the top and sides of the cake with more coffee buttercream, and spread evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

   8. Cover the cupcakes with the buttercream. There are many ways to decorate the cupcakes. For example, small spoonfuls of the muffin can be taken out,  the gap filled with buttercream and topped with the muffin tops. Then cover the top of the muffin with more buttercream for  a muffin with a coffee cream centre!

   9. Enjoy!