~ tiramisu cupcakes ~

tiramisu cupcake anyone? so i love this show called nadia g on the cooking channel. she is this punk rock chic chef who makes food from scratch with organic ingredients.. there was an episode where she made these tiramisu cupcakes and i knew i had to give them a shot.. (the original recipe can be found here: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/nadia-g/tiramisu-cupcakes-recipe/index.html) ..i'm not a big fan of baking desserts but this one i just had to give it a try...this is how they came out...



what do you think? yea.. i know.. looks awesome.. they tasted good too! one thing about the original recipe was her cupcake batter itself. there was no leavening agent (e.g. baking soda, baking powder) which can cause the cake to be very dense and possibly dry. so instead, i made my own simple cake batter and used parts of the original tiramisu cupcake recipe that i liked... the frosting.

let's deconstruct a traditional tiramisu to illustrate that these little gems have the same components

* lady fingers.. check.. the cupcake

* espresso the lady fingers are dipped into.. check.. the cupcakes are dabbed with the espresso, sugar, rum/almond extract after they are cooked

* marscapone cream .. check... the frosting would be the cream since it is made up with marscapone and powdered sugar

* chocolate shavings .. check.. chocolate shavings atop each cupcake

i've actually made these cupcakes into mini cupcakes so that you dont feel guilty eating 3 or 8 of them.. you will definitely eat more than 1 because they are that good

recipe (yields 48 mini cupcakes):

ingredients:

cake -

* 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) at room temp.. allows for easy mixing

* 1 cup sugar

* 2 eggs

* 1 1/2 cup of flour

* 1/2 cup of milk

* 1 tbs baking soda

syrup -

* 2 tbs of sugar

* 3 shot of espresso (3 oz) .. i just bought it at starbucks

* 1 tbs of rum or amaretto or almond extract, optional

frosting -

* 1 package of mascarpone (around 8 oz)

* 1/2 cup of powedered sugar

* remaining syrup after dabbing cupcakes

* 4 oz chocolate of your choice.. i used semi sweet

hardware:

* clean mixing bowl

* good whisk or electric mixer

* mini cupcake tin or regular cupcake tin

steps:

1) pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

2) make the syrup

        > mix the sugar into the hot espresso with the sugar until desolve

        > mix in flavoring (rum/amaretto/almond extract), optional

        > set aside to cool in the fridge

3) make the cupcakes

        > in the clean mixing bowl.. cream butter by itself until the butter is a creamy color with the whisk or electric mixer

        > add the sugar into the creamed butter and mix for a good 8 - 10 mins .. when baking.. this is really important because it creates air in the batter.. resulting in a light airy dessert

        > add in 1 egg at a time .. mixing thoroughly as each egg goes into the creamed butter and sugar mixture

        > add in half of the flour and fold gently until

        > add in all of the milk until incorporated

        > add in remaining flour and mix until incorporated.. do not over mix or else all the butter that was put in will be gone

        > fill cupcake tin 3/4 of the way for each cupcake... do not fill it all the way to the top or else the cupcake will overflow while baking (though we all know muffin tops are delicious)

        > once all of the cupcakes are filled.. pick up the pan and drop it gently onto the counter/table ..this levels out each cupcake

        > bake the cupcakes until golden brown.. the mini ones take about 13-15 mins to cook.. i always use a toothpick to make sure.. if the toothpick comes out clean.. the cake is ready

.... time passes....

        > when cupcakes are done.. take them out of the tin to cook for a couple mins

4) add flavoring

        > take a toothpick and stab each cupcake a couple times to make holes for the syrup to go into

        > dab each toothpick with the espresso syrup made earlier.. 1/8 tps is good enough

5) making the frosting.. the best part

        > mix the marscapone, remaining espresso syrup, and powdered sugar together

        > mix until the frosting is stiff .. not runny.. good test is using coating the back of a spoon and if you run your finger down the back of the spoon and the line is still there.. the frosting is good to go

        > with a spoon or piping bag, dollop some frosting on each cupcake

        > set aside to set.. i know its hard to resist giving it a taste right away

6) decorate the little ones with chocolate shavings

        > using a knife or a veggie peeler.. shave some chocolate to top each cupcake

7) eat!