Coffee Cake Experiment

I made an awesome coffee cake from this blog last week.  I didn't use nuts because of potential food allergies, but it was really, really tasty.  We have a cooking/baking rule in our house: always make it true to the recipe the first time around.  It is very common for us to make a recipe exactly like it's written and then we modify it based on our palettes for the next time around (or, in the case of many recipes, we go "THIS ISN'T SALVAGEABLE" and throw the recipe out).

Something that I did right away with the original recipe was beating the egg whites into stiff peaks.  I waited until my mixer was busy last time and ended up nearing destroying my arm/shoulder doing it by hand.

 I really, really love my mixer.

With that being said, we thought the coffee cake recipe was missing something.  So, we decided to tweak it.  But how? The hubby and I had three different ideas on how to make it tastier.... thus.... A BAKE OFF!  First, we made the batter then split it into three batches to create each different version and make them into cup cake sizes for faster baking/easier to taste test, etc.

Three batters in three bowls... glad I have so many bowls.

The first batch I added vanilla extract because why not (my idea - curiosity).

The second batch we added two shots of espresso for a stronger coffee flavor (my idea).

The third batch we added the espresso grounds since they're finer than coffee but would still give that oh-so-coffeey taste (his idea).

We still put the brown sugar butter crumbs on top because they were delicious and didn't need tweaking.

I should have put more on some of them.  In the espresso ones, it sunk into the middle for a surprise when we bit into it. Pretty good.

However, I forgot that in the original recipe she warned about the batter rising and potentially dirtying the oven.  Sigh. The first batch were a little on the heavy side, so I just poured only half in for the second round.

The one in the back right hated me.

Also, notice how the vanilla ones were rising higher? I think it's because I put too much espresso in the other batter, thinning it too much. Ah well - this was an experiment anyhow. =)  The first batch were in the oven for 18 minutes before the vanilla ones finally weren't jiggling anymore (and the toothpick test worked as well).  However, the espresso ones weren't done baking so I had to pop them back in for another 5-7 minutes.  I think I could have put more brown sugar topping on them to help weigh the rising down as well.  As for the espresso grounds and remainder of espresso cakes, I found the same problem - the batter that was thinner with the espresso baked slower than the thicker batter with grounds.  Argh.

This is the espresso grounds one.  Very, very dark.  The hubby suggested removing the brown sugar on this one and icing it with dark chocolate.  I don't think he's wrong and will have to try it.

I'm not good at making pretty cupcakes. 

We decided to have them with a nice glass of whole milk.  Oh man, was that a good choice.

But how do they taste? Well, the vanilla ones are amazing.  The originaly recipe is delicious, so when adding in vanilla it's a win-win situation.  The second batch with the two shots of espresso in it are OK... but they aren't anything exciting.  Sort of bleah.  And the third batch with the espresso grounds are too strong, according to the hubster.  I think they're yummy... but I like strong espresso.  He's also got a good idea about icing them with chocolate.  Might be doing that for another day.  All in all, we found two good ways of altering the recipe and one eh way (meaning it won't happen again).

All my knit critters wanted to try some. =)  Suggestions welcome!