Tiramisu Cupcakes

Ingredients for Tiramisu cupcakes

• Butter: I prefer salted butter here but you can also use unsalted butter. Make sure it’s softened to room temperature so it creams well with the dry ingredients. 
• Flour: I use all purpose flour in most of my recipes BUT you cannot beat the texture of cake flour in cupcakes so I highly recommend King Arthur’s Cake Flour. It is far superior to some alternatives in the grocery stores.
  • I have used the “homemade cake flour” trick by replacing 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour with cornstarch. The cupcakes will work if you make them this way but they won’t be quite as soft and tender. 
  • I HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is so often over measured. 
• Baking Powder: to leaven the cupcakes. 
• Sugar: I used granulated sugar and I don’t recommend cutting any out.  
• Oil: I always use a combination of butter and oil in my cakes because I like the texture from both. I recommend a neutral oil like vegetable oil, canola oil or sunflower oil here. 
• Eggs: In the original recipe, I used two large egg whites to keep these cupcakes as pale as possible. I wanted that for aesthetic purposes because I wanted white cupcakes to decorate. However, for this recipe I went with one large egg to eliminate the waste of yolks. The color is still pretty pale but slightly more yellow. Both options work well. 
• Sour Cream: I’ve used greek yogurt and sour cream in this recipe and they both work well. You can also use plain yogurt. However, if you sub the sour cream for extra milk, the cupcakes might shrivel up a little when cooling. 
• Milk: I use whole milk or two percent but any milk will work here, even dairy free. 
• Vanilla: vanilla is a subtle flavor so when I want it to stand out, I do double vanilla. I did extract for the cupcakes but then either vanilla bean paste or real vanilla beans for the cream. 
• Espresso: There’s nothing like freshly brewed espresso in my opinion but I do have options for you! I love my tiramisu STRONG – I used 2 double shots of espresso (my Breville makes a double shot so I draw 2x and don’t dilute it with extra water). My total was about ½ cup of espresso so I did 1-2 Tbsp on each cupcake.
  • If I didn’t have an espresso machine, I would probably order some freshly brewed espresso from my local coffee shop to make this OR I would make a really strong cup of brewed coffee.
  • Coffee: this works with brewed coffee as well but personally I find it to be a little watered down so I recommend brewing a STRONG cup of coffee. You could also add a little coffee liqueur or amaretto for some flavor as well but I usually don’t. 
  • Espresso Powder: this also works but it really isn’t quite the same. I would do 8-10 grams of espresso powder in 4 ounces of hot water (let it cool).
• Mascarpone: I tested this with different brands of mascarpone, they all worked however, some of the mascarpone’s held a little more water than others. My favorite was BelGioioso Mascarpone but if you find something with an even higher fat content, use that. The cheese should be smooth and creamy (not wet and certainly not like cottage cheese or ricotta).
  • If you use another brand and you see water in it (usually at the bottom) , drain the cheese to avoid adding extra liquid to the cream but I recommend just finding a mascarpone with a thicker consistency.
  • Make sure the mascarpone is cold, straight from the fridge when using.
• Heavy Whipping Cream: I recommend using the cream with the highest fat you can find and make sure it’s cold when adding it to the mascarpone.
  • When you do add it in, you’ll notice the frosting getting softer first, just keep beating at full speed for a few minutes and the cream will “whip up”, stiffening the frosting. Once it’s holding good peaks, stop beating so you don’t over-whip the cream. 

Expert tips on getting perfect tiramisu cupcakes

There’s a few things that can make it or break it with these cupcakes. 

• Don’t swap ingredients unless I mentioned them in the ingredient section above.
• Don’t reduce the sugar. I know a lot of people do that for some recipes but not this one.
• Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale 
• Weigh the batter for each cupcake with a digital scale. I just place the cupcake pan on the scale with the liners and measure out 50-55 grams for each cupcake. You will have enough batter for about half a cupcake leftover. DO NOT BE TEMPTED to distribute that among the cupcakes, they will sink if they’re overfilled. 
• Use a light colored stainless steel muffin tin. 
• Fresh espresso is the best and make sure everything is cooled when you soak the cupcakes.
• Make sure the mascarpone and heavy cream are cold before making the frosting.
• The cocoa powder sets into the frosting rather quickly so if you want it to look fresh, dust it fresh before serving.