Coffee Cake

My sorority held an event the other day, planned by my good friend and (sorority) sister. She managed to turn our sorority house into a coffee shop, Starbucks-style, for the evening. She had asked me to make some cupcakes for the event, and of course I accepted. I made four varieties of cupcakes, each based on a coffee shop drink to go along with the theme:

Hot Chocolate = Devil's Food Cakes + Dark Chocolate Frosting

Vanilla Latté = Vanilla Cakes + Coffee Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Caffé Mocha = Devil's Food Cakes + Coffee Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Vanilla Bean 'Frappuccino' = Vanilla Cakes + Vanilla-Bean Buttercream Frosting

I didn't have a lot of time to decorate them [I am a full-time student] so I made simple candy dots in the colors of our sorority- pink and blue- for the coffee-free cupcakes, and garnished the coffee-frosted cupcakes with one coffee bean and a sprinkle of ground coffee. I think these would look adorable with cut-down-to-size green Starbucks straws stuck into the frosting or inside brown Starbucks cup sleeves. They could even be baked in coffee mugs.