Coffee cake. Am I the only one who thinks that ‘coffee cake’ should ACTUALLY TASTE LIKE COFFEE? Apparently, given that the rest of the internet seems to misread the name as being something along the lines of ‘plain cake to go with your coffee’ or, at best, ‘cinnamon cake to go with your coffee’.

Bah, humbug.

So, I created my own coffee cupcakes! I decided to make them all fancy by adding a crumb-style topping (because, don’t you know, all the best not-really-coffee-cakes-at-all have a crumb topping). Incidentally, this proved to be an amazing idea. I had a hard time stopping myself from eating the crumb topping before it went on the cakes! In the end, I demonstrated enough self-restraint to have enough left over to sprinkle on my pumpkin pie.

For the cake batter (to make 9 cupcakes), I used: 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, 2 tbsp coconut flour, 2 tbsp instant coffee, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup thick coconut milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbsp tahini, 1.5 tbsp honey and 1 large apple (grated). I basically mixed the wet ingredients together (the last 7), and then into the combined dry ingredients.

For the crumb topping, I used: 1.5 cups walnuts, 1/2 cup almond flour, 4 tbsp coconut oil, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt. I just whizzed them in a food processor until crumb-like, and then got myself strapped into a straightjacket.

I filled the cake cases (admittedly, jumbo-sized) halfway with the batter, then topped up with the walnut crumbs.

I baked these for 23 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick came out clean. Like most of my cupcake/cake recipes, these will feel slightly squishy/puffy/under-done when they first come out of the oven. Resist the temptation to leave them in longer (unless they are actually visibly runny) as they will be dry! They just need time to cool down and firm up at room temperature and then they will be lovely and moist.

Here they are looking lovely with another cupcake recipe soon to be featured…involving…chocolate!