Recipe : Tiramisu Cupcakes

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I love tiramisu but always thought it was a bit inconvenient to transport from place to place. After craving it for weeks and weeks, I finally decided to search through my bookmarks to find the tiramisu cupcake recipe I had saved. The first time I made it, an angel food cake base was used. This time around I opted for a different cake base. I followed Martha Stewart's Recipe hoping that she would not steer me wrong.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
Coffee-Marsala Syrup
Mascarpone Frosting
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Cupcakes straight out of the oven. Notice the poked holes on the tops.

* For the coffee-marsala syrup, I substituted Kahlua for the Marsala to give it a more authentic tiramisu taste. I also poked holes in the tops of the cupcakes and ladled the coffee syrup over it as opposed to brushing it on. If you are going to do this, I recommend you poke the wholes while the cake is still hot.

The frosting was quite simple to make as well. I also folded in some Kahlua at the last minute. Be warned...last time I attempted this tiramisu frosting, I added the Kahlua and over mixed the frosting causing the alcohol and mascarpone cheese to have a curdling reaction. I recommend folding it in right before you frost your cupcakes.

Mascarpone frosting with a dash of coffee liqueur.

Frosting piped and a light dusting of cocoa powder later, we have the final product.

Yummm!

The final verdict: The frosting was delicious but the cake part was a bit too dense for my liking. I definitely prefer the angel food cake as a base but if making from scratch it seems wasteful to crack so many eggs just to toss the yolk away. Try this recipe out!! I may just make these again using an angel food cake base once I figure out a substitute for fresh egg whites.

-Carmen

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