Mocha Cupcakes made with Starbucks Via

I wish I could claim this genius idea as my own, but I cannot. Jordan (our sister/sister-in-law), added Starbucks VIA to her cupcake batter and icing a couple of years ago to make the Best. Mocha. Cupcakes on earth. 

And even though it's not my idea, I will sleep better at night once I pass this tip along. Because if you like coffee and chocolate (and cupcakes), you haven't really lived until you've tried one of these.

The whole mocha cupcake recipe is here, but the jist is that you add three packets of VIA to the cupcake batter and two packets of VIA to the frosting. You could use homemade frosting, but the Betty Crocker Buttercream is great in a pinch.

And then, you should probably pack up a platter or two and take them to various coffee-loving friends. If not, you might look at the plate a couple hours later and realize that you've eaten eight cupcakes. Not that that's happened around here or anything.

ps- We served these at the Denver Blogger Meetup and they were quite the hit!

Whipped Cream Messages

I didn't used to like whipped cream very much.

Whenever they would add it to my sundae, I would always scrape it off to get to the ice cream.

(Maybe it wasn't so much that I didn't like whipped cream, as it was that I love LOVE ice cream).

But somewhere along the way I found a stronger affection for whipped cream.

And it's growing daily.

And it grew even more last weekend when I figured out that you can use cupcake stencils to decorate your whipped cream too!

Even better, I got these stencils from Michaels fall clearance section for like 90% off or something.

Fun, huh?!

Just pour your drink of choice (hot chocolate/coffee/chocolate milk),

Top with whipped cream,



Then take your cupcake stencil and your hot cocoa mix

(cinnamon would probably work well too. We tried cocoa powder first, but it was too clumpy)

tips: Try not to dip stencil into the whipped cream.

When you go to lift off the stencil, it pulls the whipped cream up and stretches your word/stencil.

The more the better, you can see that "yum" above is the best looking, that's because we were most generous with the hot cocoa powder on that one

When you do it thicker (like "yum") it lasts a long time and doesn't spread too much when it's moved. When it's thinner it doesn't last nearly as long and stretches a lot when you move it.

It's better to use homemade whipped cream, or let your drink be hot so it melts a bit.

The picture will be much clearer if the whipped cream flattens out.

It's great for a hot cocoa bar, or just a cozy Saturday morning...

looks good, and tastes good too!

What do you think?

What else could put whipped cream on top of?

Even better, what else could you stencil?

A little Coffee Trick

Want some more pumpkin love? Let me tell you another little secret of how to add more pumpkin to your drinks. When I was in Philadelphia for Wedding Tour 2011 (Adam and I had 3, yes 3! weddings for our best friends in PA in September) I learned a little coffee trick from my bff's sister. If you love brewed coffee, and you lo-ove pumpkin, then you'll really lo-o-ove this trick.

Ok, just add pumpkin spice, the seasoning, to your coffee grounds before brewing. Ta-da! That's it! Easy, smells like fall, and tastes delicious.

For anyone who doesn't have pumpkin spice on hand, like us, you can make your own with other spices you're likely to have. I found a recipe online here, but I typed it out below too:

Here's what you'll need:
1/2 t of cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger.
1/8 t ground allspice or ground cloves.
1/8 t ground nutmeg.

Stir to blend.
Makes 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
(I used between 3/4- 1 full teaspoon for a full pot of coffee depending on how fall-ish I feel.)

Then just add it to your coffee filter where your grounds should already be.

Top with a little whipped cream and drizzle with some chocolate sauce (or caramel sauce) to make it an even more special coffee day.

Yu-um!

barista banter- pumpkin spice lattes (to order and to make at home!)

*We've invited our favorite barista (our sister/sister-in-law, Kedron) to do a monthly column about all things COFFEE! This month she has the 411 on pumpkin spice lattes- yum! Without further ado, here's Kedron-

Fall to me is synonymous with things like the rollout of Caramel Apple Spice, Salted Caramel Mochas, and yes- Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Let's just have a moment of silence for the yummyness I just listed off................pausing...........reflecting.........mouth is starting to water........

 

image via lunacafe

Ok, now that I have that behind me I would love to share my own personalized favorite of the Pumpkin Spice world of drinks. This is my go-to fall order when I am in a Pumpkin Spice kind of mood.

Two disclaimers- I am not a HUGE latte person so most of my drinks I convert into americanos (meaning that instead of the drink being made with milk you just make the drink with hot water instead). And before I write out my drink, do know I  realize it makes me sound ridiculous and high maintenance,  but I blame that on working at Starbucks for six years- This is what it will do to a person :)

So without further ado- here is the best drink in town when it comes to Pumpkin Spice drinks (seriously, order it, you'll see):  
A Single Grande (or 16 oz.) 2 pump Pumpkin Spice 2 pump White Mocha with half and half, whipped cream, and pumpkin spice sprinkles Americano. 
*NOTE- I had to cut back on my coffee intake since becoming a mom but you can add shots here if you like more of a coffee taste. Same with the pumps- I don't have a real sweet tooth so these are half the amount of pumps in a grande but if you love sweet things this amount can easily be increased as well.

The glorious part of this drink is it can easily be made at home as well. I personally, being a Starbucks barista and all, love our instant coffee called Via. One packet will be enough for this drink.

DIRECTIONS for doing this at home instead of getting it at a coffee shop:

1. Boil 16 oz of hot water and combine 1 packet of Colombia Via in your 16 oz mug. *Make sure before you add anything else the coffee is fully dissolved. The easiest way to do this is add about 2 tbsp of the hot water then your packet and swirl in your coffee mug before adding the rest of the water. 

2.  In the world of syrups you can buy at stores I personally like the Monin brand of syrups because they last longer and have more a of a raw sugar taste versus an artificial sweetener taste. You can usually find these at most grocery stores- if yours doesn't have Monin, Torrani works too. I use the Monin Pumpkin Spice and Monin White Mocha when recreating my drink at home. 2 pumps equals about 2 oz ,which most shot glasses are measured out to, so I put 2 oz of each the white mocha and the pumpkin spice and stir my drink.

3. Add desired amount of half and half.

4. Although I prefer real whipped cream and would LOVE a whipped creme dispenser- (you know the ones I am talking about? They sell them at William Sonoma I think...well I do not own one of those...yet! [Christmas present?!?]). So I just use regular Reddi Whip and top the drink with Pumpkin spice seasoning- I found this at our local whole foods store! If you can't find any using a little nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon will suffice as well!

5. Now this is my favorite step- ENJOY!

See you next month for more Barista Banter!

*Kedron