This week’s Tuesday with Dorie was hosted by Megan of My Baking Adventures. If you would like the recipe for this week’s TWD, be sure to stop by her page OR buy the book, "Baking From My Home to Yours", by Dorie Greenspan.I will start by saying Tiramisu is not my favorite dessert. (I feel like I say that a lot which makes no sense because I consider myself a dessert fanatic). So knowing this ahead of time and having an entire cake in my house I knew it would be too much. After reading the Q&A, someone mentioned cupcakes, and that got me thinking. “I could make this into a cupcake!”
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this cake (cupcakes in my case) were! The recipe had a lot of components but each one was rather simple and NOT time consuming at all. I was able to finish everything in a matter of hours, including assembly.
The cake flavor reminded me of my favorite, dare I say….boxed yellow cake **ducking from the vegetables and fruit being thrown at me as I speak**. My point is, the batter was very tasty, but once cooked they came out sort of dry. I’m not sure if I over mixed (which I’m pretty sure I didn’t) or over cooked (which I really don’t think I did but…). I just felt that the cake turned out to be a tad stiff and not flavorful at all. I’m not sure if this is because it’s meant to be dry so that the cake can withstand soaking of the espresso syrup or what?
Curdled batter
Cupcakes ready for the oven
The espresso extract and syrup was very easy to make. I didn't have trouble finding the instant espresso as I have a specialty Italian market just blocks from my house. Gotta love that!
Instant Espresso
The mascarpone cream part was pretty easy, however I wouldn’t recommend mixing with a whisk because the mixture doesn’t come out smooth enough (just my opinion).
I hollowed out each cupcake using the cone method. For the cone method you cut around in the cupcake top about the size of a quarter with a small serrated knife into a circle. You should pull out the part of the cake and it will look like a cone.
Mascarpone cream
Then you fill the inside with your filling. In this case, I drizzled the espresso syrup in each hole, then piped in the mascarpone cream, then topped with chocolate shavings. I then put the cake top back on, and piped on more mascarpone cream, dusted with cocoa powder and chocolate shavings.
Cone Method
Espresso syrup in cupcakes
Filling in the cupcake
Overall, the cupcakes were not bad, but still not my favorite. I need more of a sugar buzz in my dessert. My husband took them to work and they were gone before he could set the container down. Not a bad sign!
Thank you Megan for hosting!
Next TWD: The Tartest Lemon Tart!
