Tiramisu Inspired Cupcakes

I’ve always wanted to try making tiramisu cupcakes, and here they are!  I found many recipes that required using a lot of eggs and a couple that only required 1 or 2.  I ended up choosing a recipe to follow that uses the least amount of eggs, modified it a little bit (I always like to reduce some of the sugar), and they turned out pretty awesome.

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sugar (but I used a little less than that..more like 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons)
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature

Coffee Soaking Syrup

• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablelspoon Kahlua rum

Cream Cheese Filling/Frosting

• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream, cold
• 1 tablespoon Kahlua rum
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• cocoa powder for garnish
• semi-sweet chocolate shavings for garnish

yields 10 to 12 cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from 6 Bittersweets.

Directions:

Vanilla Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In the mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, oil, milk, vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix in the stand mixer on medium (level 3) until the batter is smooth (no more than 2 minutes). Add the egg and yolk, then continue beating for an addition minute.

Line a standard muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Fill the cupcake liners until they are about 2/3 full. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes (mine were done at 16 mins) or until very light brown.

Let them cool in the tins for 5 mins. Then transfer them to a cooking rack and let them cool completely (about 1 hour).

Coffee Soaking Syrup

Stir the coffee powder, water, and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring it just to a boil. Transfer the syrup into a bowl and stir in the Kahlua rum. Set aside and let it cool.

Cream Cheese Filling/Frosting

Sift the powdered sugar in a separate bowl. In the stand mixer, beat the cream cheese on low (level 1/2) until smooth. Add the heavy cream and continue beating until incorporated. Slowly and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing in between adds, until all the powdered sugar is added. (You may add more powdered sugar for desired sweetness). Add the vanilla extract and increase the mixer speed to medium (level 3). Beat for 1-2 minutes. Set aside or place it in the fridge if you like a firmer frosting.

*Now, onto the actual cupcake product!*

After the vanilla cupcakes have cooled completely, cut a cone out of the top of each cupcake and set each top aside. (You may want to line them up in a way for you to remember which top goes with which cupcake).

Using a spoon, coat each cupcake with the coffee syrup. Make sure you coat the sides and the center of the opening. 1 tablespoon to 1 1/2 tablespoon of coffee syrup was enough for me. If the cake doesn’t look too soggy, you can add a little more.

Fill the opening with the cream cheese frosting, dip the bottom of the cone with a little coffee syrup, then place the tops back onto each cupcake. Top each cupcake with another small dollop of frosting. Garnish the tops with cocoa powder and/or chocolate shavings.

YUMMY.

Mini Green Tea Cupcakes

Before making these, I was spending way too much of my time trying to perfect the Japanese fluffy cheesecake… I tried making it 3 times, and all 3 times I was unable to acheive the fluffiness. Not sure why it’s so hard. Maybe it’s the whole cake flour that I used, but anyway, since I have a lot of this cake flour left, I found a few recipes that would make good use of it. Including this one! :)

Recipe adapted from Food Mayhem and I also looked at this one from Avocado – Pesto.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour (I used organic whole cake flour)
• 2 teaspoons matcha powder (I used SerendipiTea’s matcha culinary grade, organic green tea)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar (I cut back on a little bit of the sugar)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Trader Joe’s alcohol free)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used Clover’s natural sour cream)

For Frosting

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoons matcha powder
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place muffin liners in muffin tin.

In a bowl, sift together flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt. Then mix with spatula.

In the stand mixer’s mixing bowl, beat together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract at low speed (level 1/2).

At low speed (level 1), add half of the dry mixture stirring just until incorporated.

Then add half the sour cream, stirring at low speed (level 1).

Add the rest of the dry mixture, stirring at low speed (level 1).

Then add the rest of the sour cream, stirring at low speed (level 1) until incorporated.

Fill mini muffin liners 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes. (I went a little over the 2/3 fill line, judging by the way mine turned out compared to Food Mayhem’s). Leave in muffin tin for 10 minutes and then remove.

*For some reason my cupcake pictures turned out a little lighter than they really are.*

Cool completely before frosting.

For Frosting:

Sift together confectioners sugar, and matcha powder in a bowl. Then mix with spatula.

In the stand mixer’s mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, vanilla extract, and butter for 4-5 minutes on low speed (level 2).

Lower the speed to 1 and slowly add the dry mixture.  Then increase the speed to medium (level 3/4) and beat for another 4-5 minutes.

Frost using a piping bag.

This was my first time frosting with a piping bag. The consistency of the frosting is actually quite thick and it was hard to do the swirls, so I resorted to simply just frosting at the center. The frosting is a bit sweet for me, so just a little bit of sweetness at the center was actually the perfect amount for my liking.  I love the aromatic smell and the tea taste is also just right–My new fave cupcake!