Happy Thursday! How are you my friends? Hope everyone is doing good enjoying Summer (well here up north). I’ve been enjoying it a lot because we are going boating at Lake Berryessa, it’s been fun! I haven’t baked so much in the last couple of days because the heat is not a very good friend for that (I have my AC on almost all the time but I love to have my windows open when I cook/bake). Also, I’m excited because I bought plane tickets to visit my family next month, one of my brothers is getting married so I’ll be there to spend time with family and friends.

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts. I love the combo of coffee, chocolate and mascarpone cheese. It’s just perfect.

Let’s start with the recipe!

Yield about 24 regular size cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

7 tbsp. milk

3 tsp vanilla extract

7 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

5 large whole eggs plus 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. of white granulated sugar

For the espresso syrup

1/2 cup brewed  espresso, hot

4 tbsp. Kahlua

5 tbsps. white granulated sugar

For the frosting

1 3/4 cups heavy cream

12 oz. mascarpone cheese,  at room temperature (take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you use it)

1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2-3 tbsp. Kahlua

For decorating

Cocoa powder or grated chocolate

Chocolate covered espresso beans

Directions

For the cupcakes:

1.- Preheat oven to 325 F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

2.- Sift together and combine: flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3.- In a small saucepan add the milk, vanilla extract and butter. Heat over low medium heat until butter is melted. Be careful to not burn the mixture. Set aside to cool down.

4.- In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine eggs, egg yolks and sugar and whisk to blend.  Set the bowl over an inch of simmering water and heat, whisking occasionally until the mixture is warm and the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Return the bowl to the mixer base (be careful you don’t burn your hands). Whisk on high speed until mixture is pale yellow and fuffly. You’ll see that it can hold a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. It took me about 3-4 minutes for this.

5.- Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture in 3 batches. Then, stir 1/2 cup batter into the milk mixture to thicken, then fold the rest of the milk into the butter until just combined. Do not overmix.

6.- Fill the cupcake pans max 3/4 of each cup. Be careful, if you over filled the cups, they won’t have a nice rise and they might overflow. Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes. Transfer pans to wire racks.

For the espresso syrup:

1.- In a small bowl combine the hot espresso, sugar and Kahlua, mix very well until the sugar is dissolved. Place the warm cupcakes on a wire rack and using a a brush (pastry one), brush the syrup onto the tops of the cupcakes. If you want this process to be faster, you can make tiny holes on the tops  so the liquid soaks in. Brush every top about 4-5 times. You really want a good coffee flavor, so do not be afraid to brush them that much.

2.- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting

For the frosting:

1.- In a chilled bowl of a stand mixer (you can put your bowl to chill in the fridge for an hour before making the frosting) with the whisk attachment (which I chilled too), whip on low medium speed for 2 minutes and then add the powdered sugar and Kahlua. Then set the stand mixer to medium high speed until stiff peaks form.

2.- Add the mascarpone cheese with a spatula, until all is well mixed.

My recommendation is not to mix the heavy cream and mascarpone like other recipes you can find. Sometimes when you mix them both, you’ll get a grainy texture.

3.- Frost the cupcakes. I used Wilton 1M.

4.- You can dust some cocoa powder on the top or grate some chocolate. Decorate with coffee beans. I used chocolate covered espresso beans.

Enjoy!

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