Pantry Purge: Starbucks Mocha Powder (#1)

Found in the pantry....

1. Box of cake flour, purchased who-knows-when.
2. Starbucks mocha powder, no longer offered for sale. Yes, it's that old.
3. Assorted decorative sprinkles and sugars
4. Bottle of el-cheapo rum cream (ie - rum condensed milk??)

Found in the refrigerator....
1. Around 5/8 package of cream cheese

Take those ingredients, feel inspired by a hand-written note from sometime mid-last week (I should take time to bake something amazing and creative) and you get: Starbucks Mocha Cupcakes with Chocolate Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

I didn't do a step-by-step, but here's my recipe:

Starbucks Mocha Cupcakes
(Adapted from Martha Stewart's Chocolate Cupcake recipe)

• 3/4 c Starbucks mocha powder
• 3/4 c + 1.5 T cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 c sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners. Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour. Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Rum Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from this recipe)

• 5/8 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 T and 2 t rum cream
• 2-2/3 c confectioners' sugar
• 2 T and 2 t butter, softened
• 1-1/4 t vanilla extract
• 1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon

In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese, rum cream, confectioner's sugar, butter, vanilla, cocoa, and cinnamon to a spreadable consistency.


Now, to put everything together...

I followed these instructions (using the closed star tip) to pipe my frosting onto the cupcakes. Then I dusted on some basic chocolate sprinkles and sparkling sugar crystals.

And The Boy says:

These are amazing!!!

Mission.Accomplished.