"I Do" With Tiramisu

Mmm...tiramisu...literal translation - "pick me up" - so appropriate. The very word inspires visions of lavish surroundings, faraway elegance, and a quiet moment of indulgence all to myself....

I think I love freehand piping decorations! They all come out so different and unique!!

....ok, I'm back. The second cupcake I served at the bridal shower Tuesday night was a Tiramisu Cupcake from Martha Stewart that I found on Pinterest. The bride's two favorite desserts are anything minty and Tiramisu. You've already read about the mint chocolate chip cupcakes and now I'm gonna share these beautiful little treats with you. First of all, the cake is absolutely fabulous - light and spongy- and very reminiscent of ladyfingers. In fact, I will probably use this cake again as a base for other flavors. For the coffee, I used a dark roast (is there any other kind) Folgers and brewed it extra strong for a full-bodied, rich flavor. The icing is a whipped mascarpone creation that basically melts in your mouth. Finally, the cupcakes are dusted with cocoa (I used dark). Now, normally I would dust them much more liberally but since these were for a shower and the colors were pink and green, I didn't want to put that much dark brown on top and take away from the theme or decor. The overall result was....well, it was a treat for sure. Such a great representation of the traditional dessert. The bride said that it was probably the best cupcake she had ever eaten. High praise, indeed! The looks on the faces of the ladies - surprise, excitement, and pure joy - when I told them about the cupcakes is the very reason I do what I do!

The recipe (original found here):

• Tiramisu Cupcakes
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved (I used 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• Coffee-Marsala Syrup
• Mascarpone Frosting
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

A Luck o' the Irish Month o' Cupcakes #2 - Mint Chocolate Cupcakes for the Bride

The second cupcake in my tribute to St. Patty's Day series is Mint Chocolate Chip. I am so excited to introduce you to this cake! Remember my post about random things a little while back where I told you all about my favorite chocolate cake recipe? Well, scratch that! I found my NEW favorite and it is to die for! I mean it. Unbelievably, ridiculously, slap-your-mama good! Trust me. Even my mama would agree. She loves this cake so much and that, my friends, is HUGE! I think I've told you before how picky she is. Well, she was licking her lips over this cake. I found it in a cookbook that my parents got me for Christmas. This book is so cool and has so many recipes that I can't wait to try. It's called Baked Explorations and I love it! The chocolate cake recipe that I am referring to is their Devil's Food cake. High quality dark chocolate (I used Ghirardeli Intense Dark 60%), dark chocolate cocoa, and strong hot coffee are the secret ingredients in this decadent, oh-so-scrumptious cake. Try it. You will be hooked, I promise!!

Love this book!

For the icing on these cupcakes, I used a recipe I found on, you guessed it, Pinterest. This mint chocolate chip icing tastes just like the ice cream. No kidding. In fact, my sister whose favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip and who also happens to be lactose intolerant, said that she could freeze the icing before eating it and never feel deprived again! I will say this, though. I don't think I will ever use it for cupcakes again! Piping this stuff is a nightmare. One of the reasons I love cupcakes so much is because they are just about the cutest things ever! Well, these babies are not at all cute. I tried two different sized round tips. Then I tried just piping through an open piping bag without a tip. Ugh! So, in the end, I just had to flatten it out and smooth it with a spatula. Thankfully, these were for a bridal shower and I had cute toppers to go on them. From now on I'll just be using this one for cakes - not cupcakes!

Ugly but oh-so-delicious icing! :)

The bridal shower colors were pink and green (spring wedding, of course) so the mint chocolate chip icing was the perfect color. I piped the letter "W" (for the couple's last name) and hearts with green candy melts and I think they turned out quite adorably. We also had carrot cupcakes from the previous post (I made a double batch because I knew we had the bridal shower) and tiramisu cupcakes (you'll get to read about those in my next post). These may seem like strange combinations that have nothing to do with the other and, well, you'd be right except for one important thing. The bride's two favorite desserts are anything minty and tiramisu. Therefore, that's what I made. Hello! What the bride wants...the bride gets!! :)

Carrot, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Tiramisu Cupcakes (post coming soon) 

The recipes:

Happy Birthday Brunch & What's Coming Up.....

Birthday Muffins

Hey friends! This has been a busy week and next week isn't looking any slower! I wanted to take a few minutes and give you all a heads up about what's goin on in my life and what you should expect to be reading about in some upcoming posts. First, remember I told you that we'd be taking a few detours from cupcakes this month because of birthday celebrations at work? Well, today is my second birthday with two more - one on Monday and another on Tuesday - next week. For today's birthday girl, Debbe, we're having a surprise birthday brunch. I made Glazed Spice Muffins that I found on Pinterest (the recipe I used calls them Glazed Doughnut Muffins, but I don't get the correlation between these and doughnuts so I changed it), Breakfast Casserole, and a fruit salad with a Marshmallow Cream Cheese dip. Now, this sweet lady's birthday is actually on Saturday - St. Patrick's Day - but the office is closed on Saturday so we celebrated a bit early.  The muffins were wrapped in birthday themed liners with a candle in one so that we could sing to her and she could make a wish and blow it out. Let's face it, a birthday isn't a birthday without candles , singing, and wishes! We also had juice and coffee and lots of fun! I love surprises!!

Fruit with Marshmallow Cream Cheese Dip (equal parts marshmallow fluff and cream cheese)

The spread :)

Let's see...this week we've had missions conference at church and tomorrow morning is our ladies' breakfast and then church-wide missions banquet in the evening - yes, lots of food. Also, I have friends moving out of state so I'm meeting up with them Sunday night; I have to get things planned for the two birthdays next week - one of which is my BFF, Michal's (from my Lemon & Raspberry post); and I have a bridal shower Tuesday night which will bring us back to cupcakes - Tiramisu and Mint Chocolate Chip - YUM! Oh yes, and two other friends are coming into town over the weekend with lots of plans and fun to be had for all throughout the week!! Whew...I'm tired just typing all of that!

So, what can you be expecting to read next week? Well, first there will be the aforementioned Tiramisu cupcakes in a post titled "I Do with Tiramisu" and "A Luck O' the Irish Month O' Cupcakes #2 - Mint Chocolate Chip for the Bride". There will also be a post about the two special birthdays next week but I don't want to give any surprises away so you'll just have to wait and see....don't let the suspense kill you! ;) Anyway, I'll be happy when life settles down a little bit because I have some really exciting ideas for cupcakes and can't wait to share them with you!

Some fun and exciting news - Terry over at These Peas Taste Funny featured the Green Velvet Cupcakes from my previous post on her Facebook page so head over and check out her fun blog! Thanks, Terry, for the shout out! Also, Kara over at Happy Go Lucky just featured the Lemon & Raspberry cupcakes from last week (thanks to all of you wonderful "clickers") so head on over and check them out on her blog! Thanks, Kara and Amy, for a fun party!

As you can see, great things are happening in my little corner of world and I'm loving every minute! Talk about blessed! As always, happy reading and, more importantly, happy cupcake-ing!