Caramel Cafe Mocha Cupcakes

My sister in law is a huge Starbucks fanatic.

Huge.  In fact, I'm sure she spends at least one full paycheck there each year.

When I saw this at the Brown Eyed Baker, I knew I should keep it in mind for her birthday.  I slightly modified it, but in the long run, these treats were a huge success.


Since my SIL is gluten free, I made the entire process easy for myself by investing in Betty Crocker's Gluten Free chocolate cake mix.  I've tried different GF mixes before, but her's is the smoothest I've found so far.  

The only thing I did differently was to add 2 Starbucks Via Italian Roast packets to the mix.  This added the "mocha" flavor I desired.  Bake according to the box's directions.

For the butter cream frosting, it went like this:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2½ cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ Via Italian roast packets

Mix up butter until smooth.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  Once to desired consistency, blend in vanilla and coffee crystals. Start with one packet of Via.  Add as much or as little as you want, depending on the strength of the coffee flavor.

To decorate, I took the naked cupcakes (remove the paper if you use the liners), and placed them in the bottom of a Starbucks hot sample cup.  (They'll share them with you if you buy something there, like the Via.)

Then, leaving a little space around the edge, frost the cupcakes to look like whipped cream.  For the straws, cut the Starbucks' straws into thirds.  Top with caramel drizzle (I used Smucker's from the squeeze tube), and then finished with mini chocolate chips.

FYI: The straw helps to pull the cupcake back out for eating purposes.

Thirsty Thursday, just add caffeine!

Today, we'll try something a little different.  Seeing as we are thoroughly ensconced in the Summer months, I thought that now would be a good time to chill out, but first, a little back story.  Back in the day (think the later half of the 90's), my best girl, Heidi, and I used to work at a coffee shop.  Never together in the same place at the same time, no one trusted two teenagers enough for that, but for the same franchise owner in the same mall, and occasionally for the same shifts.

 I'll admit, we raised some shenanigans back in our day, but we lived across one backyard from each other, and I'm sure such things are expected of best friends that stretch back for more than half of your life time.  

Fast forward more than a decade, and I still remember that job fondly.  I think of the people I met, the fun we had, the different locations we branched out into.  It was always a blast, and the only thing that lasted from the job, aside from the fond memories, is my hatred of coffee.

Yes, moms, I know that HATE is a strong word.  I suppose I don't hate coffee as much as I strongly dislike it.  I will drink beverages with coffee in them, but when it comes to straight coffee, I'm pretty much spent.  However, when I saw the recipe for the Cappuccino Freeze, I thought back on my late teens and remembered the fun we used to have making mocha chillers for the masses. Call me nostalgic, call me thirsty, call me what you will, really, but when it comes down to it, I was so psyched to make this drink, that I made it on a 62 degree day (as you find in summer in Southern California), with little to no need for any personal caffeine.

So, I pulled out my ingredients for the drink and then looked at the recipe.  What?!  Freeze it, shave it, then serve it?  Mock indignation!  I can't put that much effort into a drink that I want now. (Have I told you that I'm an only child?)  That's just more than most could hope for.  What's a Thirsty Thursday-er to do?  Well, my friends, that's why we have a handy dandy blender in our household, so here are the modifications that I made...

First, I boiled 1/4C of water in the microwave, and added the instant coffee.  Then, I added 1/4 C of cold water to dilute it a bit.  From there, I added the sweetened, condensed milk and whipped it up.



Tip: I would probably add 3/4 C of cold water to dilute the sweetness a bit more.  I always forget how sweet that milk can be!


From there, I poured about half of my milk/coffee mixture into the blender with ice.  I blended well, poured it into our mugs, added the Cool Whip, and shaved the chocolate to place on top.


You can use any whipped topping, I probably should have just gone for the Reddi-Whip, since that's always a winner in our house.

Please note how the chocolate shavings went EVERYWHERE.  It was all I could do to beat the ants back with a toothpick while I cleaned it all up.  I think more chocolate ended up on the counter than on our drinks. It was fun to "zest" chocolate, though.  I can't believe it's taken me 31 years to try that out.

We made three overflowing 16oz drinks from one batch of this, and could have probably made more if I had diluted the coffee mixture with a bit more water.  It was sweet in a large quantity, but it was SO GOOD.  We will definitely repeat this recipe again since we loved it so, and hope you will, too.

Cheers!