Tiramisu Cupcakes

I've gotten so into the baking thing that when relatively major life cycle events come around on the calendar, I start to think about what I can make for it. Is that weird? Probably. Whatever, though, I'm having fun.

When my friend Erica let me know she'd be having her birthday shenanigans at a bar near us (my favorite bar in Brooklyn, the Black Horse Pub -- you seriously should go) it was as if the fates aligned. Not only did I get to make something, but the owners of the bar have been tipped off to my baking and love when I bring in food, as long as they get to taste everything (I brought them a plate of the peanut butter cup brownies I made earlier in the weekend just to make sure they continue liking me). So I asked our mutual friend, Annie, what Erica's favorite dessert is.

Turns out she loves tiramisu.

I have no idea how to make tiramisu.

So I went surfing the web for various options. I didn't want to make straight tiramisu, as that seemed kind of boring and though this looked interesting and delicious, I've never made a cake before and getting it to/from the bar seemed difficult. Plus, there's plates and knives and forks and that just seemed more effort than it was worth.

But what's almost like cake but easier to transport? Cupcakes! I'd highly recommend getting an official cupcake transport device but they're still far easier to transport and serve than a cake. I added shaved chocolate on top after I was done -- I highly suggest doing that it as it makes them look much more finished but I forgot to take a picture of that, so here's the almost-finished product.



Recipe (from Recipezaar.com):

Ingredients

Cupcakes
o 1 (18 1/4 ounce) package white cake mix
o 3 eggs
o 1/3 cup oil
o water (don't forget this part -- it's on the box)

Liquid Coffee Layer
o 2/3 cup water, boiling
o 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
o 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee

Mascarpone Filling
o 1 cup mascarpone cheese (from tub)
o 3 tablespoons Kahlua (or coffee extract)
o 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
o 1 (8 ounce) container french vanilla cool whip

Frosting
o 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
o 1/2 cup butter, softened
o 2 cups confectioners' sugar
o 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
o chocolate shavings (to garnish)

Directions

1. Make mascarpone filling mix first & allow to chill 4-6 hours or overnight.

When you're making this, I highly suggest finding mascarpone cheese, as I used cream cheese and found it to be good, but not as authentic as mascarpone would have been.

Here's what sweet condensed milk looks like.



You'll barely use any of this, so make sure to save it when you're done in a tuperware.

2. Mascarpone filling: Beat mascarpone, Kahlua and condensed milk until well blended. Fold in cool whip. Chill 4-6 hours.



I forgot to mix the cream cheese, milk and Kahlua before I put the whip cream in, but I don't think that proved to be any sort of major issue. Since everything seems to be the same color, make sure you get rid of the chunks before you finish.

One note: make sure not to lick the spoon with the whip cream on it until you're really sure you're done mixing things. It's hard. I know.



3. Prepare cupcakes as directed on box of white cake mix & bake accordingly. While these are baking prepare the liquid coffee as below.

Here's where bakers assume you know what you're doing -- I had no idea how much batter to add to each cupcake tin. I found that putting three tablespoons in each wrapper in its mixed state gave me cupcakes to about the top of the wrapper when it was done.



Your cupcakes should like the above when you're done. Let them be slightly browned before removing, even if you have to leave it in a little longer than the box says.

4. Liquid Coffee: Boil 2/3 cup water in microwave (or boil on stove) and stir in instant coffee then powdered sugar & allow to cool to tepid. Once cooled, use a fork to poke holes into cupcakes so that they will absorb the liquid cofee & then brush liquid coffee onto each cupcake using silicone baking brush. Chef's suggestion: She usually makes 3 fork piercings across top but since I was cutting out the top to put the filling in, and I don't have a brush, it wasn't a big deal.



5. Fill pastry/icing bag with mascarpone filling & inject about 1 spoonful via bag directly into top-center of each cupcake.

Ok, so I didn't have a pastry/icing bag and didn't really have any desire to buy one for just one recipe, so here's what I did.

First, I cut out a hole in each cupcake.



Then I put them aside, carefully remembering which top went with which cupcake.



I then poured about two tablespoons of the coffee mixture into each cupcake, trying to coat as much as possible while I did so. I can see where the brush would have been handy, but this seemed to work effectively.



After I had put coffee mix in each of the cupcakes, I added the 'mascarpone' filling to each cupcake.



After that, all there was to do was put the tops back on. On the ones I added less mixture to, I didn't cut off the bottom of the top. But if you don't want the guts to ooze out all over the place, you can cut off all but the very top and place it over. Doesn't really matter. No one's going to see that part once you're done.



6. Prepare Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy with hand mixer on low. Slowly add powdered sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and increase mixer to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy.

So, I blended this all together for a long time on low and got this:



That doesn't look right -- way too watery. So I upped the speed to almost high and got teh following.



That looked closer to correct, though it's by no means light and fluffy. Apparently they're definition and mine varied here, but it tasted correct so I went with it.

7. Frost each cupcake with frosting & garnish with chocolate shavings (use dark chocolate bar & cheese grater).

Frosting turned out to be harder than I expected because the topping wasn't moving at all once I put it on each cupcake, which is odd. I thought I would be able to spread it around to get full coverage but one dollop (or enough to cover the hole I'd made) just sort of sat in the center. This seems like an area where a brush would have been really useful; I'm going to have to add one of those to my list of things to buy.

These took a long time, and were really not as easy as the recipe would make it seem, but they weren't 'hard' by any stretch of the imagination and people really seemed to love them. I'd give them 3.5 out of 5 stars.