My friend Trina, bartendress extraordinaire at the Red Lyon Tavern, and photographer to the child stars of Lawrence recently had her ahem 29th birthday (again).

Trina’s alter ego, Chocolata, named after her beautiful mocha chocolata skin, and my alter ego, Gypsy, have had many an antic in our day. I mean, I’m not going to talk about that one time when she got thrown out of my hotel on my honeymoon. And I’m certainly not ready to tell the story of the time we took her Barbies, Valveeta and Rayleen, on a tour of the bars in Lawrence.

Anyway, I thought Miss Chocolata deserved a special birthday treat, a toast to our adult immaturity, at the pool party we had planned for her. I set my mind to making a Mocha Chocolata cupcake.

Let me just start by saying this: the cake mix? It’s your friend. Even Alton Brown sings the praises of cake mixes, and admits that it’s hard to replicate the properties of a cake mix cake in your home kitchen. I have tried. Sometimes I’ve had okay success, but usually I end up wishing I’d saved myself the trouble and let Betty Crocker assist me.

So yes, this recipe starts with a cake mix. SUE ME. Furthermore, this recipe starts with a red velvet cake mix. Even though I know some of the experts sort of poo-poo red velvet cake, it is what I wanted for this application.

Red velvet cake is mildly chocolatey (emphasis on mild) and that is what I wanted for this cupcake. Nevermind that I don’t really like chocolate cake, the reason I wanted to down-play the chocolate factor in this cupcake was that I wanted to up-play the coffee and Kahlua factors. I figured those flavors might get lost in a seriously rich chocolate cake. That’s right, I said Kahlua.

Plus, red velvet cupcakes are just sort of fun.

So start with your favorite red velvet cake mix. I think the one in my cupboard was Duncan Hines. Sorry, Betty.

Mocha Chocolata’s Birthday Cupcakes

1 red velvet cake mix
1 1/4 C brewed cold coffee
3 T Kahlua
2 T cocoa powder

Frosting:

2 sticks butter, softened
2 C confectioners sugar (may need to adjust this)
2 tsp good vanilla
1 T Kahlua

Make the cake mix according to the directions, only substitute brewed (and cooled) coffee for the water. Mine called for 1 1/4 C. Add in the Kahlua and the extra cocoa. (I just thought it might need a boost. I was right.) The coffee is going to darken the color of that red velvet cake to a luscious deep red color, fit for a gorgeous couch.

For the frosting, just beat the ingredients together, adding powdered sugar as needed to get it to the right (rather stiff) consistency. (You’ll see that I didn’t get mine quite stiff enough, so when it seems pretty stiff, add a little more.)

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Make the cupcakes according to the instructions. Also, do not follow in my footsteps. I am notorious for A) hurrying and B) laziness and these things often result in very irregular cupcakes. Some are tiny, and some blow over the tops of the muffin tins like lumpy mushrooms. Don’t overfill your cups. This is one case when your cup should not overfloweth.

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Once your cupcakes have baked (I always underbake just a tiny bit), remove them from the hot baking pan to cool. Don’t try to frost them until they are totally cooled or it will totally ruin the cuteness of your little frosting tricks.

I have a cupcake frosting gun, which I usually use without a tip, and sort of swirl the frosting on the tops of the cupcakes. Or you can drop the tip to the center of the cake and sort of blob it up and down, which is cute also. You can pretty much get the same effect with a Ziplock bag with the corner cut off.

I dusted some cocoa powder over the tops for pretty, by pinching it out between my thumb and forefinger and rubbing them together. It was a very professional system.

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The final product was a really beautiful, mildly irreverent, campy sort of cupcake. Just like Chocolata herself.