Kahlua Coffee Cupcakes
Baked, filled, and frosted with a delicious Kahlua and espresso flavor combination - here's a delicious recipe for Kahlua Coffee cupcakes!
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Calories: 324kcal
Equipment
- 2 Cupcake pans (24 cups total)
- 1 large cookie scoop (optional, but makes transferring cupcake batter much easier)
Ingredients
Kahlua Coffee Cupcakes
- 1 boxed white cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
- ½ cup butter (1 stick; melted and cooled)
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup vanilla bean pudding mix (1/2 package; save the rest for the filling)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Instant espresso granules (Save and add later! I recommend powder rather than instant coffee crystals as they may not dissolve when you swirl them into your batter!)
Kahlua Vanilla filling
- ¼ cup vanilla bean pudding mix (remaining 1/2 package)
- ½ cup milk (yes, less than the box calls for)
- ¼ cup Kahlua
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
- 1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons Kahlua liqueur (to taste)
- 4-5 Tablespoons instant espresso powder (to taste)
Decorations
- 24 chocolate covered coffee beans (optional; to decorate)
Instructions
Kahlua Coffee Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325℉. Line cupcake pans with liners.
- Combine buttermilk, Kahlua, melted butter, and eggs in a bowl, and blend in packaged cake mix and vanilla pudding mix. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and beat for about 2 minutes.
- Divide into cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. Sprinkle 1/8-1/4 teaspoon espresso granules over each cupcake (to taste), and swirl the granules in with a toothpick or skewer.
- Bake for time specified on box; mine took about 15-18 minutes. Cool completely before decorating. (This is a great time to make your filling and frosting!)
Kahlua Vanilla filling
- Meanwhile, make your filling. Combine pudding mix with cold milk and beat with a wire whisk until combined. Whisk in Kahlua and refrigerate until set.
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- To make the frosting, beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with Kahlua until frosting reaches an even, pipeable consistency.
- Divide the frosting in half, and mix espresso granules into one half of the frosting. Add additional powdered sugar if needed to offset the Kahlua and keep your frosting at a pipe-able consistency.
Assembly
- Once the cupcakes have cooled, you're ready to core them. There are a few ways you can do this....you can buy a cupcake corer, you use the back end of a large piping tip, or....you can do what I do and cut a
- cone-shaped core out with a plastic knife. Up to you!
- Transfer filling into cored cupcakes - this can be done with a piping bag or a spoon.
Decorating
- Transfer your frosting to your piping bag. As best you can, add one color frosting to each side of your piping bag - I usually turn the bag almost all the way inside out and start adding frosting near the piping tip so I don't have so much extra bag to fight with.
- Pipe frosting in large swirls onto your cupcakes. Top each one with a chocolate covered espresso bean. Done and done! Enjoy! 🙂
Video
Notes
(Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate.)
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 324kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 2.4g | Fat: 18g