Cheater Mocha Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

Lately I've been cheating and using box cake mixes in recipes to help me out. This time my original plan was to make a recipe from Steamy Kitchen, but unfortunately I forgot to buy the cream cheese to make the frosting so I had to come up with another idea.

I made the cupcakes the same way as suggested but instead of buttercream and coconut, I simply used a chocolate glaze from VegWeb and decorated with marshmallow flowers. Sweet and simple.

I didn't need 24 cupcakes and only wanted to make 12, so I used 1/2 the box of cake mix. I just eyeballed it, I didn't measure. Wrap up the rest for later use. The recipe on the box calls for 3 eggs, I just used 1 and it worked out just fine.

Colourful mini marshmallows.

Cut them diagonally to make petals.

Cut them in half then dip them in coloured sugar for the middles.

Preparing the glaze.

Glazed and starting to build the flower.

The petals are in place.

Pretty flowery cupcakes.

Cheater Mocha Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the Cupcakes

• 1/2 a box of devil's food cake mix
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1/4 cup avocado (or unflavoured) oil
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons water
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1 cup powdered sugar

For the Decor

• 42 mini coloured marshmallows
• 6 mini green marshmallows
• coloured sugars

Directions
Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
2. Mix the coffee in the water. Stir until completely dissolved.
3. Mix the cake mix with the egg, coffee water and oil just for a minute until well combined.
4. Divide the batter among 12 muffin cups.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing.

Marshmallows

1. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare your marshmallows. This is important to do ahead of time (before you make the glaze) otherwise the glaze will dry while you're preparing the marshmallows and won't stick.
2. Select 42 marshmallows from a bag of multi-coloured minis, and cut them in half (across) as shown in the picture above. I used orange, yellow and pink ones. You will need 7 petals for each flower (which is 3 1/2 marshmallows). Take 6 green ones and cut them in half down the middle as shown above, then dip the cut ends into green sugar. You can dip the cut sides of the petals in different colours of sugar too if you like. The cut ends will be sticky. Set your marshmallows aside.

Glaze

1. Warm all the ingredients except for the sugar in a small pot over low heat. Stir occasionally. Cook just until it's warm.
2. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and stir in the powdered sugar. If you want a thicker glaze, add more sugar.
3. Spoon the glaze (1 teaspoon is enough) over the cupcakes while it's still warm (the glaze, not the cupcakes).

Decorate

1. Place one of the green marshmallows, glittery side up, into the middle of the glazed cupcake. You can also sprinkle some of the green sugar around the cupcake at this point. I did it after I arranged the flowers and realised I'd just made life more difficult for myself. Arrange 7 petals around the green marshmallow. Set the cupcakes aside so the glaze can set.
2. Now you can share them with the people you love.