A Tiramisu Triumph!

I'm excited to share this recipe with you.  Of all the desserts, cupcakes, and sweet treats I've made to date, these cupcakes absolutely received the most rave reviews.  They are both pretty and pretty easy to make!  If you like tiramisu, I cannot  recommend these enough.

To begin, mix up your favorite yellow cake recipe and bake it into cupcakes.

As they are cooling, make a cup of coffee.  Any flavor you like will do just fine.

Next, using a skewer, poke holes into the cupcakes.  Be sure to poke several holes so the coffee absorbs.  You can either use a pastry brush to apply the coffee to the cupcakes or a spoon to pour it on.  I found using a spoon worked better to achieve the sponge-soaked cake effect of tiramisu.  I poured a teaspoon sized spoon of coffee onto each cupcake, one at a time, and repeated the process until the cup of coffee was gone.  

This photo shows the three steps from bottom to top:

1.  Bake cupcakes

2.  Poke holes with skewer

3.  Apply coffee with pastry bush or spoon

While the cupcakes sit soaking up the coffee, prepare the icing (which is soooo delicious!).  One of the distinctive flavors of tiramisu is mascarpone cheese, a smooth and soft buttery cream mixture with a sweet, light flavor.  In the cupcake version it's used in the icing.  You can find it in the cheese section at most grocery stores.

Mascarpone Cheese Icing

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 8 oz. package of mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks.  (To see the progression of stiffness as you beat the cream, click here for photos at one minute intervals).

In a separate bowl, beat together mascarpone cheese and sugar.  Once the mixture if fully creamed together, add the whipped cream in three increments, beating until completely incorporated at each interval.  The final product of icing will look like this:

To ice the cupcakes, I used a piping bag with the end snipped off.

After each cupcake is piled high with fluffy icing, dust the tops with cocoa powder.

Lastly, add some bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (if desired).

And there you have it! 

You can see the coffee soaked cake deliciousness after just one bite.  

Tiramisu is my Husband's favorite dessert so I'll be baking him these for Valentine's Day.  I hope you have an opportunity to make and enjoy them, too!

Pretty In Pink: Chocolate Desserts

I had an order for a baby shower with the request to use browns and pinks.  This was a fun assignment and I was excited.  However, it was also a little overwhelming coming up with designs with so much inspiration and ideas from research.  Also, if you follow me on Facebook, you know I had some issues with humidity, as in it's E-V-I-L, which upped the ante in completing this order.  For five days straight it was foggy 24/7 and without air conditioning I had to have the windows open in order to prevent suffocation.  I have either a) never experienced weather like this in my life or b) never noticed because I was baking all the time.  I'm just not sure.

Since I had this order why not just put in the air conditioners you ask?  Well, my husband was working 14 hour days and they are too heavy for me to install myself.  So that was that.

For instance, I was asked to make sugar cookies in a flower shape with pink icing.  I had to call and say I wasn't able.  The icing was NOT drying.  I had an idea to make chocolate cut-outs and to use melted pink chocolate for the flower outline.  I baked the cookies for an extra minute to dry them out a bit more and the pink chocolate worked just fine, so they turned out okay in the end.  For the incredible recipe for these cookies, click here.

The second part of the order was cake pops.  I had no issue making these, thankfully.  As for the design, I was going to use a squeeze bottle to decorate them with pink chocolate, but since I used some for the cookies it seemed too redundant.  I was asked to keep the design very clean and simple, so I used some brightly colored flower sugar candies I'd picked up at Michaels Craft Store.  I separated enough pink ones and used a toothpick to apply a bit of melted chocolate to the tops of the pops.  Then, using tweezers, I added the pink candy.  I actually really liked the final result!  For instructions to make cake pops, click here.

The next part of the order was chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling.  I had a hard time making a filling that wasn't too runny, which made the cupcakes soggy.  Finally, I came up with something.  For directions detailing how to add filling to a cupcake, click here.  Next, I made some buttercream icing and on several I piled fluffy, pink frosting.

I decided to experiment with hand-rolled gum paste roses.  They kinda turned out okay.  I definitely need more practice making them.  Some looked more like roses than others.  The good news is I enjoyed making them.  It was a zen kind of project.

Lastly, for the chocolate cupcakes, I attempted to smooth the buttercream icing and make pink buttercream flowers with a dragee center.  As you can see, the concept was a good enough one, but, clearly, I need to work on this design.  With the moisture that permeated my house, the buttercream was acting fussy, too.  Yes, even the icing was in misery!!  ;)  To see a much prettier version of this flower design, click here.

And then there were the stars of the show...the Tiramisu Cupcakes.  I had to make a second batch after throwing out the first.  The idea is to poke holes on the top of each cupcake and then dip them in espresso.  The first batch was beyond soggy.  I was worried about the second batch, but they turned out just fine.  They were topped with an amazing Mascarpone Icing, finished with a dusting of cocoa powder and chocolate shavings.  Oh, they were beautiful.  I mean, I really loved them and felt proud of how they turned out.  So it was really too, too bad that they tipped over during the delivery and were a complete mess of icing and powder.  At least I have this pretty picture to remember them by:

*Sigh*  The good news is, they were (barely) able to be salvaged and everyone LOVED them.  All was forgiven and I didn't completely ruin the poor Woman's Baby Shower as I feared.  These cupcakes are so awesome they will be getting their own post soon.  Stay tuned!