Tiramisu Cupcakes

I am super sleepy today. I have not been sleeping well lately but today I finally slept in. *Phew* I was feeling so rested I went for a 6 mile run. About 4 miles in I was wishing I had only done a 4 mile run, but I toughened up and trucked through the final two. Then I went  to vote, doing my civic duty! Then I meet up with some friends for lunch, then came home and went on a two mile walk. So now, I'm sleepy. My New Years resolution was to run at least 30 miles a month, so far I'm ahead of schedule :) But let's face it, you don't want to know about my day. You want to know about these delicious cupcakes.

Turns out, I had no idea that tiramisu marscapone  was already coffee flavored. I thought marscapone was unflavored, just creamy dreamy cheese like cream cheese. But I'm glad that I was wrong, because this made making these cupcakes easier. These lovies are definitely in my top 5 favorites and I'm guessing they will be in yours too, if you make them.

I was having a tough- gotta be an adult day- yesterday and desperately needed to retreat to my sanctuary of baking. So I did a quick check in my fridge for inspiration and realized I had marscapone from when I thought about about making cupcakes earlier. Naturally the only thing I think of when I see marscapone is tiramisu and then ta-da tiramisu cupcakes. Trust me, this cake will get you out of any funk. I was literally jumping up in down in my kitchen I was so pleased.

Luckily RJ loves tiramisu and I love cupcakes, so we love this dessert. Do you have a favorite dessert you want to convert into a cupcake?  I also want to say and quick chat with some of my favorites really boosted my mood too :)  But if nothing else, make this frosting-oh who am I kidding, make these babies.

Cupcake:

Preheat one 350 line  24 muffin wells 

3 C. Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 C Butter (12 Tbs)
1 1/2 C. Sugar
4 Eggs
1 C. Buttermilk
3 tsp Vanilla

In a bowl combine and sift flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In mixer beat butter until light then add sugar, combine until fluffed. Add eggs one at a time until combined and then add vanilla. Alternately add milk and flour mixture to butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined. Fill muffin wells to 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes or until and inserted knife comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Let cupcakes completely before adding filling.
Filling:
8oz Tiramisu Marscapone cheese
1 C. Powdered Sugar
3 Tbs Cream

Put ingredients into bowl and blend until smooth. Cut out a hole in the top of the cupcake, about the size of a dime. Insert knife at and angle and cut a circle. Do not throw away  this piece!  Fill the hole with the filling and press the cut out cake back into the hole. Top cake with Frosting. Dust with Cocoa Powder

Frosting:
1 Tbs Instant Espresso
3/4 C. Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Rum
2 Tbs Cream
3 C. Powdered Sugar
Blend Instant espresso and butter. Add vanilla, rum and 1 cup sugar, mix well. Add cream and 1 cup powdered sugar, blend then add last cup of sugar. Add more powdered sugar or cream if needed.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. I love these.

Piece!

Orange Chocolate Chip Cake

I love, love, love the combination of orange and chocolate. It rocks my world. As it so happens, oranges are super cheap here right now.(weird considering winter is their prime growing season) but hey I'm not complaining. I also happened to have a spare bag of mini chocolate chips hanging around- so my wheels went a-turning. Think Meghann, think. So I thought, "duh- Moms toll house cake"but add orange zest and orange glaze.

I perused my recipe box and found what I was looking for. I cannot guarantee my mom invented this recipe but then again I do not know where she found it. I adapted this recipe since her original one didn't call for oranges. But my changes aren't too much different, just a bit.

Let me start by telling you, this recipe is super simple, but I screwed it up. Whomp.. whomp...whamp. Every chef aspiring baker goes awry once in a while, this week was my turn. First  a little back story: While I was out getting some brown sugar for the cake, I decided to pick up a box of butterscotch pudding because I love that too.  When I got home from the store I followed the directions on the box, add 2 cups of cold milk, stir and put in the fridge. People this is probably the most simple recipe ever and I messed it up. Aye de me. Turns out if you use soy milk to make instant pudding you need to use less milk (awesome! I didn't know this) So my pudding never set up.

Next failure was my cake. I was super excited because the batter tasted amazing before I popped it in the oven. I had high hopes. I even told RJ, this is going to be awesome. 40 minutes later, the baking gods had set me up for disaster. It was U-G-L-Y it had no alibi. Depressed I swore off baking. Only to be reminded by RJ, if at first you don't succeed, try again. I rolled my eyes, gave a heavy sigh and walked out the door... to the grocery store. I needed more supplies, I wasn't going to let the cake get the best of me.

My second go round was a cinch (just like I thought the first one was) only I remembered to add all of the flour into my mix and not just part of it. PEOPLE - remember to put in the correct amount of ingredients if you want a happy product.

So the moral of this story is: sometimes you have bad cooking weeks, get over it and get back into it.

Chocolate Chip Cake:
2 1/4 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2c butter, softened
1 C firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 C milk
1 12oz pkg MINI (not the regular size!!) chocolate chips
Zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients; set aside. Save a little of the flour mixture to dust the chocolate chips with.  Mix butter and sugar until fluffy; add vanilla, eggs and zest, beating well. Alternately blend in flour mixture and milk to creamed mixture. Stir in chips. Bake in greased and floured Bundt pan for 45-50 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from pan

Orange Glaze:
2 C. Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Juice of half and Orange
Zest of half and orange

Stir ingredients together until smooth and set aside until cake is almost cooled. Once you flip the cake onto it's final resting place, drizzle half the glaze over the top, add more glaze if you like it sweet or add on to each individual slice as you go.

I'd like to say this combination is great. It's sweet and goes great with a cup of milk.

Piece!