Last weekend my man decide to make his most awesome spaghetti and meatballs. I have always thought spaghetti and meatballs was boring and blah until I had his. They are melt in your mouth delicious! Anyway, the dinner crew decide we’d all go italian, with stuffed mushrooms, caprese salad, etc. My contribution, I decided, would be Tiramisu Cupcakes! I had no idea how to even start, since baking’s need for preciseness goes against my cooking style—so to Google I go!
After reading a few recipes, I settled on this one: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/TIRAMISU-CUPCAKES-BY-CUPCAKE-CULTURE-1272254 Because it just sounded so delicious and not too hard.
It took me about 2.5 hrs in between bouts of watching America’s Next Top model on YouTube to finish these babies, and they are TOTALLY worth it for a Sunday afternoon. Lots of great flavors and textures and I fell in love with mascarpone cheese all over again. I could eat that shit by the cup-full. Thank god my fridge does not come with a mascarpone dispenser. I’d have to say good bye to my waist line for good!
Anyway, I’m going to repeat the recipe here. You have 3 parts: Cupcake, Glaze, and Icing. WOO HOO!
Cupcakes:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Tiramisu Glaze: (prepare when cupcakes have cooled)
1 cup espresso
1/4 cup Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate syrup
2 oz Kahlua
1/2 oz Myers Dark Rum or Brandy
1/3 cup sugar
Icing:
2 packages 8 oz Mascarpone Cheese
1 1 lb Box Confectioners sugar
1 Vanilla Bean finely chopped in mini food processor or 1 tbs pure vanilla extract (un why are vanilla beans so expensive?? F That $10 a bean price tag. The vanilla extract was great)
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch sea salt
Garnish : Cocoa Powder and 24 chocolate covered espresso beans and/or chocolate shavings
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 - 12 cup muffin pans with muffin paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in your next to largest mixing bowl. Set aside.
3.In your largest bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.
You better believe i stuck my finger in there and “tested” the batter. For safety measures only. I swear. mmmmmmmMMM. I think it’s safe…better check again, just to make sure…
4. Drop ice cream scoops full of batter in each lined muffin spot. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 24 minutes, or until tops spring back. Let cool about 10-15 min. Then remove cupcakes from pan and let cool while you are doing all the other stuff.
5. While cupcakes are cooking, combine heavy cream, and mascarpone cheese in a large bowl and mix on low speed. Add vanilla and salt. Then slowly add confectioners sugar, allowing each sugar addition to thoroughly mix with the cheese mixture until all of the confectioner's sugar is gone. Put icing into a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, put it in a ziploc bag and snip off a corner when you are ready to frost.
soo smooth and creamy! yum! Also feel free to test this stuff. Can never be too sure…
6. Prepare the glaze by melting the sugar into the hot espresso in a large mixing bowl with a whisk (by hand) Then add syrup, kahlua, and rum/brandy. (I did not have syrup, so I melted some ghiradelli chocolate in a double boiler till it was nice a melty. Worked great!)
7. Take a straw or kabob stick and poke a small hole in the top of each cupcake. With a spoon, ladle some of the glaze into the hole. Then I like to dip the top of each cupcake into the glaze to ensure that it is evenly covered with the glaze. It shouldn't be soggy - just covered enough that the cupcake looks light brown. This gets messy, so I’d do all the pouring/dipping and place the cupcake on a plate/tray that you are not going to use to serve the cupcakes.
oh lord.
8. Pipe the icing onto each cupcake. Lightly dust cupcakes with cocoa powder and top with espresso beans/ chocolate shavings.
Oh yeah, baby. Lined up like little soldiers waiting to march into my belly!
The texture of this cupcake batter is a kind of lighter, dryer, grainier. But It works for this cupcake bc of the glaze that soaks into the cupcake. Probably would be overkill if this were a very dense cakey cupcake. So Thumbs up to inventive rebirth of tiramisu!
Enjoy!
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