By far and away, my favorite new cupcake that I made this month were the Donuts & Coffee cupcakes that I made for Jen's birthday.
I had sent away for the mini donut pan after seeing this post from Just Jenn.
As soon as it arrived, I knew I was going to like it. It makes mini baked donuts (so really, cakes shaped like donuts), in about 8 minutes, and they are so easy and fun to decorate. I had a blast getting out all of my gel dyes and toppings.
The first time I made the icing, it looked great but after a day kind of melted into the donuts. This is probably as a result of being baked and not fried as well, and it was only powdered sugar and water (as per the instructions that came with the baking pan) so there was not much substance to it. The day that I made a new batch to put on the cupcakes, I used this recipe from Alton Brown and the consistency was much better, although I had to add about twice as much powdered sugar as it called for.
For the cake, I just used a basic chocolate cake recipe with some espresso added, and I also added some brewed instant espresso to a classic buttercream frosting recipe.
It was fun to make something that was 2 desserts in one, and watch people have fun eating them and choosing their favorite design - definitely a keeper.
