The Tiramisu Cupcake

This is a simple rendition of a non-alcoholic Tiramisu cupcake suitable for all audiences. To make a version with alcohol, just add your favorite spirit to the cupcake at step 4.

What you will need:

-Any sponge cake or light vanilla cake batter
-A cup of coffee, sweetened (see step 3)
-Sweet whipped cream or mascarpone frosting (or tub of whipped cream with enough powdered sugar mixed in to sweeten)
-Unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
-Piping bag with large star tip


Step 1:

Mix up your cake batter. Line your cupcake pan with liners, fill with batter, and bake until toothpick can go in and come out clean.


Step 2:

Let cupcakes cool to room temperature.


Step 3:

Sweeten cup of coffee until lightly sweet (just enough to get a hint of sweetness, but not enough to lose the coffee flavor) and let it cool. Use sugar, honey, or anything else you have lying around that might be an appropriate sweetener. My fave: sweeten the coffee with dulce de leche! If you will be serving cupcakes to anyone who is caffeine-challenged like myself, try using decaf.


Step 4:


Once cupcakes are cool, poke holes in the top of the cupcakes with a fork and brush on or spoon on coffee.



Step 5:

Let cupcakes stand long enough for the coffee on the top layer to seep down into the cupcake. If you want strong coffee flavor, add a second (and even a third) layer of coffee and let stand once again until it has all seeped into the cupcake.



Step 6:

Add your large star tip to a piping bag and fill with the whipped cream or mascarpone frosting. Real tiramisu is made with mascarpone frosting, but whipped cream frosting is a nice substitute (and so much cheaper!).


Step 7:


Swirl the frosting onto the cupcakes. If you have an abundance of frosting, this is a good cupcake for heavy-handed frosting usage.


Step 8:

Add cocoa powder to a sifter, sieve, or a wire pasta strainer and sift a thick layer of powder over the top of the cupcakes. This will give it the distinctive tiramisu look.



Step 9:

Enjoy!

The Jello Cupcake

This one can be messy, but it is simple and will be so much fun! Use multiple different Jello flavors to add color and variety.

What you will need:

-Any sponge cake or pound cake batter
-A package of your favorite flavor Jello (I like cherry!)
-Vanilla buttercream frosting (if you are buying canned, any creamy vanilla frosting will do)
-A piping bag with large star piping tip


Step 1:

Mix up your cake batter. Line your cupcake pan with liners, fill with batter, and bake until toothpick can go in and come out clean.


Step 2:

Let cupcakes cool to room temperature.


Step 3:

Mix half of the Jello powder into solution (follow directions on the box, using half of the water directed to dissolve half of the Jello powder).



Step 4:


Once solution is thoroughly mixed, spoon it over your cooled cupcakes. To get the best penetrance of the Jello solution throughout the cake, poke holes in the cupcake using a fork/skewer/chopstick before pouring the solution. If the cake is sufficiently light, you will not need to poke holes. For heavy or dense cakes, always use a skewer or chopstick for larger holes.


Step 5:


Refrigerate cupcakes until Jello is solid (2 hours should be sufficient).


Step 6:

Take remaining Jello powder and mix it into the frosting. This will increase the sweetness of the frosting, so, if you are making your frosting from scratch, you may wish to substitute some of the powdered sugar for the Jello powder instead of simply adding it on top. Try adding a little bit of powder at a time until you get the flavor you want in your frosting. I like to put half a pack of mix into enough frosting for around a dozen cupcakes, but this can be cloyingly sweet depending on the frosting you are using.



Step 7:

Add a large star tip to a piping bag and fill the bag with the frosting. Swirl the frosting onto the cupcakes.



Step 8 (optional):

Consider adding a little piece of fruit on top for garnish. For example, I like to use cherry Jello, so I might serve the cupcakes next to a small bowl of cherries for people to add on top if they so choose.


Step 9:

Enjoy!

The Snickers Cupcake

Just like the oreo cupcake, you can't go wrong to offer guests a snickers cupcake. Just beware of anyone with nut allergies!

What you will need:

-Any chocolate cupcake batter
-Any caramel or brown sugar cupcake batter
-Your favorite nougat
-Chopped peanuts
-Chocolate chips (or any chocolate you don't mind melting)
-Heavy cream

If interested, go to our recipes page (here) for a nice chocolate batter, caramel batter, and/or peanut butter nougat.


Step 1:

Mix up your cupcake batters. Add chopped nuts to the caramel batter. If you like a lot of peanuts, add a lot. If you're not a huge peanut fan, just add a little.


Step 2:

Line your cupcake pan with liners, and fill halfway with chocolate batter. Fill the rest of the way with caramel/peanut batter.

(Note: If both batters are about the same consistency, you will get two distinct flavor layers, but if your caramel/peanut batter is heavier, it may sink in spots, giving you a swirly looking cupcake. If you want distinct layers, but your batters are two different consistencies, add the heavier batter to the pan first with the lighter batter on top.)


Step 3:

Bake cupcakes until a toothpick can go in and come out clean. Cool cupcakes to room temperature.



Step 4:

Using a small knife (or a coring tool, if you have one), cut the middle out of the cupcake. I like to use a paring knife and cut down at a diagonal to make a cone shaped hole in the center.


Step 5:

Your nougat should be gooey. Scoop it up with a small spoon (or even the back of the spoon if the nougat is a little more stiff) and add it to the center of the cupcake. Add nougat until it fills the center completely.


Step 6:

You will need to make a chocolate ganache. Most ganache recipes call for about 1 cup of heavy cream to 9 oz of chocolate, but that will likely make way more ganache than you need.

Using a double boiler setup (glass or metal bowl over a saucepan filled with boiling water), add a couple handfuls of chocolate chips. When chocolate chips begin to melt, add a tablespoon of cream and stir. Continue to add cream in small amounts until the chocolate mix is shiny and easily stirs around the bowl. (Be careful not to add so much cream that you end up with chocolate soup.)



Step 7:

Without removing the cupcake wrapper, turn the cupcake upside down and swirl the top of the cupcake in the warm ganache. You may get the top of the liner chocolatey... that is okay. If your nougat is too thin to turn upside down without dripping, simply allow the ganache to cool down a bit (so it is not so thin that it will make a big drippy mess) and spoon the ganache over the top of the cupcake.



Step 8:

Place cupcakes in the fridge until the ganache topping is firm.


Step 9:

Enjoy!