Recipe: Coffee And Walnut Cupcakes

Whenever I ask family and friends what cakes they’d like me to bake, coffee and walnut cake almost always tops the list. However because I’ve never been a fan of the flavours combined I’ve never made it for them. But as I’m enjoying a week off work and needing to keep myself busy, I thought I’d finally give it a go.

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
-100g Stork
-100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 20g Cocoa Powder
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Tsps Chocolate Extract
- 1 Tsps Coffee Extract

For The Buttercream
- 200g Unsalted Butter, softened
- 320g Icing Sugar
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 Tsps Coffee Extract
- A Splash Of Milk
- Walnut Halves To Decorate

Method
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Into a bowl place the caster sugar and stork. Cream together until pale and fluffy in texture.
3- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour. Beat until combined and then repeat with your second egg and another tablespoon of flour.
4- Fold in the flour, coffee extract, cocoa powder and chocolate extract. Fold instead of beat so that all the air you’ve just built into the mixture isn’t knocked out and you don’t end up with a tough, chewy cake.
5- Spoon the mixture into your prepared cases and bake for 20-22mins or until the top springs back when pressed. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
6- Now it’s onto your buttercream. Place your softened unsalted butter into a clean bowl and beat until pale and soft.
7- Sieve in half of your icing sugar and beat until fully combined. Scrape repeatedly along the sides of the bowl and down your spatula, beater or wooden spoon so that there isn’t any little pockets of butter or icing sugar sitting unmixed in your buttercream.
8- Sieve in the remaining half of your icing sugar and beat until fully combined. Now is the best time to add your milk if you need to. It’ll help to loosen the buttercream if it’s too stiff to pipe or spread.
9- Beat in your vanilla and coffee extracts. On its own the coffee extract makes the buttercream strong and a little bitter but the vanilla helps to sweeten it and give it a nice little twist.
10- Spoon  your buttercream into your piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle of your choice. I went with the JEM1D nozzle as it gives a nice loose swirl that gives even the wonkiest looking cupcakes a classy finish.
11- Pipe onto your now cooled cupcakes and top with a walnut halve. Then all that’s left to do is let them set and enjoy.

Autumn Lip Edit

Every year come September 1st I pack away all my Summer Lipsticks and break out my Autumn Lipsticks. I even find myself counting down the days until I can whip out my forever cherished 107 from Rimmel. And alas it is time for me to share my Top 5 Autumn Lipstick picks with you all.

Primark Matte Long Last Lipstick In Movie Star 
This is the newest addition to my Autumn Lipstick collection and I'm so glad I stumbled across this in Primark. I wasn't a fan of the first lipsticks I tried from Primark, streaky, transferable and containing way too much glitter, but this one is practically perfect. A deep orangey red shade this is a perfect transitional shade from the many orangey coral shades of Summer. It does transfer which is annoying but I find that this isn't drying on the lips and doesn't go streaky if you reapply or build the colour.

Revlon Colourburst Matte Balm In Sultry
My next pick this Autumn is one of my all time favourite lipsticks. I love all of the Revlon Colourburst Matte Balms but Sultry is my absolute favourite. A deep mauvey shade with a hint of brown, this is the most neutral you will see me go with my lips during this time of the year. Non drying, long wearing and easy to apply I find myself reaching for this without even thinking about it. I'm looking forward to the Revlon Autumn Lipstick launches that they keep teasing at over on Instagram.

Kate Moss For Rimmel in 107 
And of course what Autumn Lipstick Pick would it be without one of Rimmels most popular shades mentioned. 107 from Kate Moss' Matte Collection is a go to berry toned lipstick that most people break out every September. I am definitely one of those people. A beautiful deep berry tone, this lipstick is flattering on every skintone. Applying this is like second nature to me now and I think that this is my third lipstick in the eighteen months I've been wearing make up consistently. Non drying, long lasting and non drying I can easily wear this all week long and not even notice. Definitely a shade I recommend picking up if you're looking for a new Autumn Lipstick.

PS Love Velvet Matte Lipstick Crayon
Continuing the berry toned theme, my next pick is another new colour I've added to this years collection. Primark lip products got my seal of approval when they released these matte lip crayons. Easy to apply, creamy on the lips and long wearing I fell into budget lipstick heaven. This crayon is very similar to 107 from Rimmel but it ever so slight darker in tone. Still it's a beautiful berry shade that compliments a majority of skintones and goes perfectly with many outfits as well.

Revlon Colourburst Matte Balm in Standout
Now if you've been reading my blog for a while now you'll know I'm a big fan of blue toned red lipsticks. And to say narrowing it down to one from my many was a hard task. I chose this out of them all as it was the only blue toned red I owned that had a hint of orange in it still. If you're holding back on cracking out all your Marilyn Monroe inpsired reds until Winter has truly set in then this is a perfect lipstick for you. As with Sultry, this lasts practically all day on lips and doesn't leave them dry or flaky. It's perfect for a dramatic lip that doesn't scream to over the top but is still wearable now as the light reflects the hint of orange hidden within.

So that's my Autumn Lip Edit? Were any of my picks yours? Or do you have any recommendations for ones I haven't tried yet? As always, let me know in the comments.