TIRAMISU CUPCAKE

Tiramisu, which means "pick me up". Oh! yes, you will surely pick up this very moist cupcake. Soaked in coffee-marsala syrup. Freshly brewed coffee or espresso would be a great accompaniment for this delicious cupcake, frosted with mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa powder.....yum!

recipe source:  Martha Stewart's Cupcake

makes 18 cupcakes

ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup cake flour (not self rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
• 4 Tablespoon(1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 large whole eggs plus 3 yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar

coffee-marsala syrup(recipe follows)

mascarpone frosting(recipe follows)

unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium just until bubbles appear around edge. Remove from heat. whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and discard vanilla-bean pod. (sometimes its hard to find vanilla-bean pod at our local grocery, i just use the regular vanilla instead, about 2 teaspoon)
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
3. Gently but throughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.
5. To, finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat intil all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes;refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

COFFEE_MARSALA SYRUP

enough for 18 cupcakes

• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee(or espresso)
• 1 ounce marsala
• 1/4 cup sugar

Stir together coffee, marsala, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool

MASCARPONE FROSTING

makes about 2 cups

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounce mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form(be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). in another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioner's sugar until smooth. gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. use immediately.