Moist and fluffy, rich in coffee flavor cupcakes filled with a luscious raspberry preserve and topped with a delicious coffee buttercream frosting. A coffee cupcake recipe from scratch that is a coffee addict dream.
Cupcakes have this thing that makes them appealing more than cakes. Everyone loves cupcakes, kids, adults, and seniors. It is like having a cake only for yourself, pretty and very convenient, I think that’s probably why almost everyone likes them. These coffee cupcakes are adults edible caffeine shots for any time of the day.
This post has been updated from the original November 2016. Last updated February 2019.

Best Coffee Cupcakes
The softest, most tender coffee cupcake ever, filled to the brim with delicious raspberry goodness and finished off with creamy coffee buttercream frosting. Seriously guys, nothing is better than a good shot of caffeine and not just any caffeine.
When you first bite into these cupcakes you’ll be hit by an ethereal, fluffy, and bitter sweet coffee rich buttercream frosting. Then you’ll sense the super soft, ultra moist, melt in your mouth coffee cupcake finally it will ooze sweet raspberry in your mouth to roll your tongue around a sweet, bitter and tart combination. You’ll be in Coffee-ville and you are going to shed a tear of joy.

Coffee Cupcakes FAQS
Well it depends. This coffee buttercream I am making here only contains butter, sugar, cocoa powder, coffee and water. So none of these are perishable in the short term. If you are using milk then it should be good at room temperature for a few days. For French, Italian or Swiss buttercream, you will need to refrigerate.
Cupcakes should stay for up to 2 days in room temperature, if they do not contains milk or eggs in the frosting or for example filled with custard. They also keep well in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
In this recipe I am making an all-butter frosting. An all- butter recipe will make a noticeably softer buttercream and will also melt faster than a recipe made with shortening. But the melting point of butter is higher than the normal room temperature unless you are in a very hot and humid room.

Coffee Cupcakes: step by step
Make the cupcakes
- Gather ingredients
Gathen your ingredients and make sure everything is room temperature including the sour cream.
- Dry ingredients
In a deep bowl, add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and baking powder and mix well.
- Wet ingredients ( oil and coffee)
Now add the wet ingredients oil and coffee then mix with a wooden spoon.
- Dairy
Now add the eggs and mix well, then fold in the sour cream.
- Bake
Fill cupcake holes 2/3 full and bake in a 350F preheated oven.
- Make the frosting
Mix all the frosting ingredients and beat well with a mixer until creamy and fluffy.
- Fill the cupcakes
For a little sweet surprise in the middle fill the cupcakes with raspberry preserve, store bought or home made whatever you like.
- Decorate.
Now pipe the frosting nicely on top of the cupcakes and decorate with fresh raspberries on top if desired.

The Coffee I like
The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Thank you so much for being a part of Amira’sPantry!
I love good coffee and I cherish my Nespresso and consider it my fourth kid :), really it makes one good cup of coffee that I have never tasted anything even close to. Nothing cannot be fixed by a good cup of coffee ☕, and add to that a luscious coffee cupcake.
I hope you’ll like this recipe and please if you make this recipe, snap a pic and hashtag it #amiraspantry — I love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter! Don’t want to miss a recipe?
Sign up for the FREE Amira’s Pantry newsletter delivered to your inbox with lots of tips and surprises! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram for all the latest updates.
Coffee Cupcake Recipe
For this recipe I have used instant coffee because a) I did not want to eat my precious Nespresso pods, I prefer brewing them and b) I’ve always had this feeling that instant coffee adds stronger flavor in baked goods than brewed ones.
If you like the recipe do not forget to give it a 5 star rating, share, comment and tag me on IG so I know how you liked it. Thanks.

A super easy recipe for coffee cupcakes to please the adults in your home.
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour.
- 2 cups sugar.
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda.
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.
- 1 cup vegetable oil.
- 1 cup strong brewed coffee cooled- I've used instant coffee.
- 3 large eggs.
- 1 container sour cream. 8-ounce
- A dash of vanilla powder or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
- 2 cup unsalted butter.
- 3 cup confectioners sugar.
- 4 Tablespoons instant coffee.*
- 2 Tablespoon cocoa powder.*
- 3-4 teaspoon of water.
- 1 to 1 1/2 cup of raspberry preserve.
- Optional : Fresh raspberries for decoration.
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
-
In a bowl mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda well together.
-
Add the oils,eggs and your cup of coffee. Mix until everything is very well combined.
-
Fold in the sour cream.
-
Pour the batter into your muffin tin, fill 2/3 of each cup.
-
Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or do the spring test.
-
First we'll make a coffee mixture by mixing water, coffee and cocoa powder.
-
Cream butter,sugar and coffee mixture well together.
-
Fill the cupcakes with the raspberry filling , I've used Wilton tip #230.
-
Pipe the frosting and decorate your cupcakes.
-
Serve and enjoy.
*To get a stronger coffee flavor in your frosting you may use 6 Tablespoons of instant coffee and do not use cocoa powder at all, for a more chocolate-y flavor use 4 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2 Tablespoon of instant coffee.
Hello! For the frosting, do I use the instant coffee granules from a packet or the liquid coffee?
Thanks!
Clare, I used instant coffee granules and dissolved them in the 3-4 teaspoons water along with cocoa powder then added them to the reast of the buttercream ingredients. I hope this will help, let me know if you need anything else.
These turned out perfect, made for my dad’s birthday and everybody loved them. So yummy!
Ashley, I am so happy that you’ve made a perfect treat for your dad;s birthday.. Happy birthday to him and thank you for your feedback.
Instructions didn’t mention vanilla so I accidentally left it out. Waiting patiently for these to finish cooking to try them out
Amber I hope it turned out tasty for you. I will fix the vanilla issue and I think it will not affect the end result as much. Thanks for trying the recipe.
Hello,
I made these today and they’re wonderful. I love anything coffee flavored so I knew I had to try this recipe. I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream because that’s what I had in the fridge. And since I was running low on eggs, I decided to only use two and they still turned out perfectly moist. I omitted the raspberry filling to suit my personal preference. I really only like jam/preserves in betefour. 🙂 Thank you for sharing a great recipe. I have another batch in the oven right now to share with neighbors.
Gina, thank you for trying this recipe and for your nice comment. I am seriously glad that you liked it and I do admire your creative and daring baker sense :). You know when I started baking I could not change even a teaspoon of sugar in a recipe but by time I got more experienced and I found out that it is also fun to play with the ingredients :)).
Very lovely cupcakes. My husband approved them, even though he doesn’t like coffee in general. Thanks for the recipe.
Maitreyi, Thanks for trying the recipe and I am so glad your hubby liked it… and this came out of a non-coffee fan!!! I am flattered :).
WOW, this is pretty much all of my favorite things in the whole world rolled up into a cupcake.. NICE!!! – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
Thanks for your comment.. Only caffeine lovers will appreciate this hahahah.
They look so fun and delicious…. Although I can’t drink coffee all the time I love its aroma and everything made with it.
Coffee is like chocolate for me… comfort food/drink or whatever you call it. Thanks Denise.
I couldn’t find your email sign up form, so I’m leaving another comment and checking the box underneath 🙂
Opps Thanks dear for pointing this out to me I appreciate it.
I see you have a Trump voter 2 comments up 🙂
People who’ve never had to put up with racism, stereotyping, TSA, basically living a normal life are the ones who don’t understand what has happened with Trump in office. It’s called privilege and they will never understand.
I’m sorry your kids had to go through all that drama. Thankfully, I’ve been very lucky to not have any confrontations.
We’ve had some looks…especially when my husband and I are together. I don’t care. He’s welcome to kick me out, I’ll be going home to England, my kids are excited in case we do move.
Lovely cupcakes…I just had straight up coffee to get over my pain.
Yep, the ugly face of democracy dear 🙂 but anyways let’s just hope for the best.
BTW: I would love it if you take me with you to England 🙂
We live in a very strange time. Although we’ve been there before — politics in 19th century America were truly weird. Not much of a comfort, I know. Anyway, terrific cupcakes. Coffee is one of the food groups, isn’t it? 🙂
Believe it or not, in Egypt people are still stuck in that era of history with no light at the end of the tunnel. Really sometimes I feel the world is going crazy everywhere, and here comes the comfort food to ease the pain :))). Thanks John.
I love your recipes, but really keep your politics at home…. Trump isn’t going to kick out nice family people like you & your kids. It is very sad that the mainstream media is scaring the different minorities into fearing for their future & their lives.