Cappuccino Cupcakes

For Nick’s birthday, I made these for him to take to work. These cupcakes are a coffee lover’s dream! With a hint of cinnamon & some chocolate…they are scrumptious. Original recipe was taken from The Pioneer Woman’s website maybe 2 years ago?… The only things I changed are that I put half the Via called for in the frosting & I thought the frosting needed chocolate. I mean everything is better with some chocolate (in my book,) right?! So I put some cocoa powder in the frosting too. I know some may be annoyed, but I didn’t measure it. I just took the canister & shook some in. Maybe 1/3 cup?… Whatever works for you! 😉

Via Cappuccino Muffins

For the muffins:
2 pkgs Starbucks Via Instant Coffee
1/2 c warm milk
1/4 c melted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon B pwdr
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 c chocolate chips

For the Icing:
1/2 c butter, softened
2 c pwdr sugar, or more as needed
1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 pkgs Starbucks Via Instant Coffee
1 tablespoon boiling water

Instructions:
Dissolve Via in warm milk. Combine melted margarine, egg, & vanilla with Via/milk.
In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, B pwdr, cinnamon & salt. Pour wet ingredients into a well in the center of dry ingredients & stir well to incorporate completely. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
Fill muffin tins or papers 2/3 full & bake at 375 for 17-20 minutes.
Cool completely.
To make frosting-start by beating together the butter, powder sugar & vanilla. In a small bowl, mix the Via with the boiling water until coffee is dissolved. Add it to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. (Here’s where I dumped in some cocoa pwdr & a tiny bit of milk to get the right consistency.)

Just for fun I put one Trader Joe’s Espresso Pillow on each cupcake because I happened to have some.