Who loves coffee cake but not coffee? Me. While I was very excited to make streusel cupcakes (this recipe has a different name, but I'm almost 100% certain it's the same one) I was also a little scared because there were a lot of steps for these cupcakes and a lot of steps makes me a little nervous that I'm going to mess something up. I had to make the cupcakes, the streusel topping and the glaze. That's 3 whole steps. Yikes.First, I prepared the cupcake batter which was easy. Nothing had to be prepped other than leaving out the butter and eggs to get to room temperature. Second, I made the streusel topping. Now, had I read ahead like I'm supposed to I would have seen that the streusel topping was supposed to be refrigerated for 30 minutes before it gets put on top of the cupcake batter. But, I didn't read ahead because I can't even follow my own rules. Shame. Once I completed the streusel topping I put it in the fridge for 30 minutes and cursed myself. On the bright side while waiting the allotted 30 minutes I played outside with Rollins, so really, everyone wins. Except maybe the cupcake batter that sat out for 30 minutes. Ugh, drives me crazy when I do that.
When it came time to fill the cupcake liners Martha let me down. For real this time. She didn't tell me how full to fill the liners, so I did what I have done for roughly the 10 previous cupcakes and filled the liners 3/4 full, then added the streusel topping. Small mistake. The cupcake liners probably could have been filled about 1/2 full and still produced lovely large, rounded cupcakes like I like. Filling them 3/4 full gave me a pretty decent-sized cupcake and also yielded me about 5 less than I should have gotten. Oops. Bigger is better, right? And, it's not my fault, Martha didn't tell me what I was supposed to do. In the future, if I were to make them again, which I probably will because they were so delicious, I would only fill them halfway. In addition, since they turned out to be so large, I also had to add about 3 minutes of baking time. So instead of 20 minutes, each batch got 23 minutes. No one wants an undercooked cupcake.
Onto the milk glaze! Super easy. It required milk and confectioner's sugar. My only problem with the glaze was that once it was drizzled onto the cupcake it didn't really harden and stay white like the pictures led me to believe it would. In most cases it absorbed into the cupcake so you couldn't really see it. There were a few instances when you could see it on the edges of the cupcakes, but that's about it. It didn't ruin the cupcakes or anything, I just thought they looked a little prettier when you could see the glaze.
Taste test time! I really enjoyed these cupcakes. They reminded me of a coffee cake my mom used to make when I was younger. She usually made it for Christmas morning or Easter brunch and I loved it. Even while these were baking they smelled like the coffee cake she made. So these cupcakes get extra points for taking me back to the simpler times of my youth and making me think of my mom. Aw.
