"Oh, bring us a figgy cupcake,

Oh, bring us a figgy cupcake, Oh, bring us a figgy cupcake And a cup of good joe!"
Hmm. Doesn't quite rhyme or roll off the tongue like the original. Oh hell, Christmas is over anyways.
Just when you thought cupcakes couldn't get any more lethal than this. We take caffeine and sugar up a whole other notch. I have to say- I could probably dedicate an entire blog to coffee cupcakes. I'd never get sick of trying to come up with combinations. It's a fun cupcake ingredient and I definitely love my coffee. Wonder if anyone has taken "Coffee Cupcake Project" yet? (just kidding stef!)
These are my official entry into this month's Cupcake Hero. I love Laurie's website and think the idea is pure genius. And this month she made me a very happy camper cause the secret ingredient as you may have already guessed is CAFFEINE! ehrr, I mean *$! Ha- still kidding~ COFFEE!
So here is how my train of thought went. "Damn, I really need to use those dried figs I bought and never used. I have really got to quit impulsively buying things because I think they would be fun to try in a cupcake. I have serious cupcake issues. TOBAC is thinking of seeking professional advice. And what the hell am I going to do with all the chocolate I have left over that I never used for Christmas cookies? This dark chocolate, red wine diet is just not panning out. I have got to quit the chocolate, that is all there is to it." Just kidding! That's me. I kid. Sorta. Except for the chocolate and red wine part. And the cussing. That part's true. Oh, and hubby trying to get me to a shrink, that part too. But I've managed to put up the good fight for 12 years on that.
I have actually really been wanting to try figs in a cupcake and when I saw coffee, for some odd reason I just thought that sounded so perfect. So I decided on a fig mocha. So then there was the issue of frosting which is a whole 'nother food group. With the chocolate coffee fig combo I knew I'd want a creamy frosting. After trying a cupcake (ah, the things I sacrifice in the name of science) I realized it would need something that could hold it's own against the cake. So I decided to go the cream cheese route. It needed something citrusy too so I decided to try a marmalade based frosting to get the tart and sweet combination. What the hell- this is for quirky cupcake after all, might as well go all out and get wild and crazy cupcakery. After all~ I bought these cupcake liners just for Cupcake Hero. really. yes. really. I'm that big of a dork. But look at how cute they are! And in my defense, could YOU really pass these up knowing full well you'd put them them to such fine use??

Figgy Mocha Cupcakes
Makes 2 dozen
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped or broken
1 cup chopped dried figs
4 teaspoons espresso powder
2 ¾ cup unbleached cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cup sugar (I used Turbinado raw can sugar cause I thought the slight molasses flavor would lend well to the figs/chocolate flavor)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sour cream
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Heat chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds. Remove and quickly whisk with a spatula making sure to fully scrape sides of bowl to incorporate. Microwave another 30 seconds and whisk until chocolate is melted, smooth and combined.
3. *You can skip this step if you prefer chunks of chopped figs. I wanted soft cakey cupcakes and chunks of fruit make me feel they are more like muffins. Just a personal preference. Place figs in food processor and pulse 4 times. Add cooled chocolate and espresso powder to figs and pulse four more times. You’ll have a creamy figgy mocha mixture that looks like this:
4. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.
5. Whisk eggs in mixer over low speed; add butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt and mix until fully incorporated. Add cooled figgy mocha mixture (or individual ingredients if you didn't process them together) and mix until combined. Sift half of flour mixture in and mix until combined; mix in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture in and finish mixing until completely incorporated. Batter will be thick but creamy.
6. Fill muffin pan cups almost full. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. I always check chocolate cupcakes with a cake tester because it is so easy to overcook chocolate. I highly recommend giving them a look at 22 minutes- if inserted tester comes out clean they are done.
7. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 30 minutes.

Orange Marmalade Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. package cream cheese (refrigerated)
4 T unsalted butter (refrigerated)
Cream together slightly and
Add:
1 T vanilla
2 T marmalade
1 t orange peel rehydrate with 3 t orange juice
1 t orange extract
Just until slightly incorporated (will be “streaky”)
4 cups powdered sugar
Slowly add sugar one cup at a time. Mix until just creamed, do not overmix. Decorate cupcakes as desired.
Also~cause I can't leave anything well enough alone~ I used some copper icing color to strip the frosting bag and topped the cupcakes with chocolate covered espresso beans. I wanted to play with the frosting decoration a bit so you are now going to be subjected to my lunacy through multiple pictures:

Coming Clean
The flavor is really interesting- your first bite into it you definitely get the fig taste. This is a substantial cupcake- not ethereal vanilla- but more like a fluffy muffin. But then you are left with a definite coffee flavor on the pallet. It's hard to explain but it was a weird sensation. Definitely fig, then definitely coffee. The cream cheese frosting with the tart marmalade was a perfect balance to the coffee fig cake. I was really happy with how these turned out.
I wanted the cupcakes to really look the part as well as taste. I think the creamy chocolate color turned out perfect. I also wanted the coffee flavor to play the major role since it's the secret ingredient. But to be completely honest- when I make these again, I'll probably add more figs. These babies definitely could have handled it. I also would like to try this with a tart cherry frosting. I think more figs and cherry would be absolutely divine. Also- I think the recipe could easily be halved. In case you aren't blessed with the US Army for cupcake tasting guinea pigs.
TOBAC and monkey really surprised me- they both said this is the best cupcake I've made to date~ I didn't see that one coming to be honest. TOBAC really felt the frosting balanced so perfectly with the cupcake that it was the tipping point. And the chocolate covered espresso beans really put them over the top. So this one is a definite keeper! And I'm wife of the year cause TOBAC gets to take these in to work and be the most popular guy~ all his high school fantasies come tru.