Tiramisu Cupcakes

These are delicious tiramisu cupcakes. They are relatively easy to make as they use a boxed cake mix. Read recipe in entirety first - it sounds more complex then it actually is. You can decorate these to be quite elegant & fancy in presentation for Brunches, Bridal showers, or whatever suits your needs. These sell at gourmet bakeries, coffee shops & cafe's for a pretty penny. Note: I do use mascarpone to make these as that is more traditional, but you could substitute with plain cream cheese if needed. Also, I do use cupcake liners because I think they present better. Lastly, it's best to prepare mascarpone filling & chill about 4-6 hours in advance or night before. FYI: You can fill the cupcakes by using a icing decorating (piping) bag filled with the mascarpone filling or use an old fashioned ketchup or mustard plastic bottle with nozzle point tip << yes, those ugly yellow & red things :-) *** Update: some of you contacted me about skipping the pastry bag step, that's completely fine, what you need to do is leave room when filling cupcake wrappers by not filling all the way, after cupcakes are baked, you poke the holes & do the liquid coffee over top of poked cakes, then just top with the mascarpone layer (make sure it's chilled well as it thickens) then just use the cream cheese frosting on top of that & top with chocolate shavings.

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes

1 (18 1/4 ounce) package white cake mix

3 eggs

1⁄3 cup oil

1 1⁄4 cups water

Liquid Coffee Layer

2⁄3 cup water, boiling

1⁄2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 1⁄2 tablespoons instant coffee

Mascarpone Filling

1 cup mascarpone cheese (from tub)

3 tablespoons Kahlua (or coffee extract)

1⁄4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 (8 ounce) container french vanilla cool whip

Frosting

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1⁄2 cup butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

chocolate shavings (to garnish)

DIRECTIONS

Make mascarpone filling mix first & allow to chill 4-6 hours or overnight.

Mascarpone filling: Beat mascarpone, Kahlua and condensed milk until well blended. Fold in cool whip. Chill 4-6 hours.

Prepare cupcakes as directed on box of white cake mix & bake accordingly. While these are baking prepare the liquid coffee as below.

Liquid Coffee: Boil 2/3 cup water in microwave (or boil on stove) and stir in instant coffee then powdered sugar & allow to cool to tepid. Once cooled, use a fork to poke holes into cupcakes so that they will absorb the liquid cofee & then brush liquid coffee onto each cupcake using silicone baking brush. ** I usually make 3 fork piercings across top **.

Fill pastry/icing bag with mascarpone filling & inject about 1 spoonful via bag directly into top-center of each cupcake.

Prepare Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy with hand mixer on low. Slowly add powdered sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and increase mixer to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy.

Frost each cupcake with frosting & garnish with chocolate shavings (use dark chocolate bar & cheese grater).