Best Cupcakes so Far!

This is a recipe I made up tonight. I was in the mood for something coffee flavored that reminds me of my favorite muffin that I buy at the Saturday farmers market called a French Drip Muffin that is absolutely delicious. If you get out to the market you must find this muffin. Its a dense rich coffee infused muffin with semi-sweet chocolate chips. So longing for those and it being only Thursday I decided to give it try myself. I took a basic chocolate recipe added a Starbucks Via in Italian Roast and took out the bittersweet chocolate (not because I didn't think it would be great in the cupcake but because I forgot to buy it at the store, next time!)I made my standby cream cheese icing and added a little vanilla bean, almond extract and orange zest. The cupcake turned out really rich but light and I'll add the recipe soon.

Update! as promised

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

Ingredients:
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 stick of Starbucks Italian Roast Via instant coffee (any instant espresso can be used I had Via handy)
• 10 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup sugar
• ½ cup of buttermilk (low fat is fine)
• 3 eggs, at room temperature separated
• 1 vanilla bean scraped

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, instant coffee and salt. Wisk egg whites together until frothy.
Stir in the eggs yolks one at a time, beating until combined after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Alternate adding in the flour mixture and the buttermilk ending with the flour mixture; do not over mix. Gently fold in egg whites.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer the cupcakes to the rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.
Frost cupcakes with cream cheese and orange zest frosting and serve. (The frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before serving.) Makes 12 cupcakes.
Cream Cheese and Orange Zest Frosting
• 1 8 ounce package of cream cheese
• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• ½ of a vanilla bean scraped
• 1 tablespoon of grated orange zest
Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar adding one cup at a time until frosting is at spreadable consistency add vanilla and orange zest. Decorate with long threads of orange zest.