Daisies for Mommy Dearest!

I wanted to do something special for my mom for Mother's day, and decided to play to her weakness for chocolate cake and coffee. (Chocolate cake and coffee are my weakness too...I guess like mother like daughter...) 

I brewed some really strong coffee (trying out a new French Roast that I had just bought that morning) and added it to some chocolate cake batter. The batter felt too strong in coffee flavor, but that baked out in the oven, as the final product only had a slight hint of the coffee flavor. I think the coffee did help intensify the chocolate though! Next time, I will play with adding coffee to the frosting or filling so that it doesn't cook out. 

My mom doesn't like frosting too much, so instead of fully frosting these, I just piped on a small daisy. I used candy sprinkles to add color to the center of each flower. 

Semi-homemade recipe:

Ingredients:

1 box of Duncan Hines devil's chocolate cake

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup of very strong coffee

frosting, food coloring, and sprinkles to decorate

To make the coffee:

Instead of using a coffee maker, I just boiled the water and lined a small bowl with a coffee filter. I added enough grounds for about 3 cups of coffee, and poured the water over, letting the water sit on the grinds for about 10-15 minutes. Then, I strained the coffee using teh filter that was already in place.  

To make the cupcakes:

Whip together the  cake mix, milk, and coffee. Pour into cupcake cups, and bake at 400°C for 25-30minutes. So easy and yummy!