Tiramisu Cupcake with Mascarpone Frosting

So Mr. W had brought the Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcake to his office and they willingly ate them all.  It got a little bit dried while in the fridge overnight but the reviews were still good!  Aimee said it is "PMS heaven."  I am so happy that they ate it all, but that means I didn't get to have another one!  After he brought them to work, I was slightly craving for them...  which leads me to a new cupcake!  Tiramisu Cupcake with Mascarpone Frosting!!! 

I got the inspiration to do this after spending a lovely time with Virginia in NYC.  She took me to a "Little Cupcake Shop"... that is literally the name of the shop (and they named their cupcake "Mott St.") Virginia said she is taking me to a little cupcake shop...I thought she was describing it and didn't think it was the name!!!  It was an okay cupcake in that, the flavors are all there but the cake was little dry and the frosting was a little dry.  I think I can do a better job... and here is the results!

This time I brought it to MY office, first time for my office to try my baking.  I think they like it... here are a few comments...

-John tries one and goes around the office announcing to everyone that they NEED to try it (at the end of the day he had 3 cupcakes)  He also said he wanted to shoot me because he is using a lot of will power not to take one everytime he goes into the kitchen.

-Joe giggled and said "i just wet myself from how good this is" and "is Mr. W the size of an orca whale from your baking?" (nope!)

-Jeremy said not to bake so much or else everyone will be fat.

I am my own worst critic, but this is gooooddddd.... no lie- it melts in the mouth.  The cake and frosting was so smooth and so soft, once you put it into your mouth it just melted.  The crumbs were so small and soft....  One change I would do is to add one more squirt of coffee into the cake- make that flavor more evenly distributed and prominent.     

Easiest Basic Vanilla Cake

As I mentioned in the last post, I like to weight my ingredients rather than measuring them volumetrically (using cups and tea/table spoons)... (is" volumetrically" even a word?)  When I made my sister's wedding cake I measured out the small ingredients (baking powder, salt, and extract) in tea/ table spoons just because they were easier.  This time I started to weigh them and as I weighted them I thought "THERE IS NO WAY THIS IS 2 TABLESPOONS OF BAKING POWDER!! when I weighed them out, it seemed a LOT more than just 2 tablespoons.  Also, I used the same spoon to "measure" salt and baking powder and I thought it was really different in terms of how much it weighs. I started to question myself...

Then I thought it out... you can't really convert volume into weight because different ingredients have different masses (ahhh... the engine-nerd inside of me...) therefore I am still doing the right thing and adding the right amount of ingredients.  I'm converted now, if you weight your ingredients, weigh all of them!  Although there is really no difference in terms of outcome between weighing or using volume for the baking powder, salt, or extract.  To make it easier for everyone, I'll just post things with volumetric measurements.

Basic Vanilla Cake (2-9in cakes)
4 1/2 egg white
1 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
12 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Bake at 350F.

1- Mix dry ingredients together in mixer bowl.
2- in a small bowl, mix the egg white, milk and vanilla together.
3- pour 1/4 of the egg mixture and all butter into the dry ingredients and beat until light and fluffy.
4- add the remaining egg mixture in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition.

it is easy as that!

Sweet and Salty..who knew??? Starbucks did...

Even though the name of my blog is "sweet and savory", tonight I went down the sweet and salty road of life.

For those who haven't tried it, Starbucks have a seasonal drink "Salted Caramel Mocha" and it is delicious!  The first time I tried it was based on the cashier's recommendation.  I am so glad I took her recommendation because it is now one of my favorite seasonal drink from Starbucks!!!  My first impression when I drank it was "hrmmm... not as sweet as the caramel macchiato.. what is this?!?! I can taste the mocha flavor! yummm. oh there is the caramel sweetness... OMG the hint of salt to balance the caramel sweetness.  THIS IS DELICIOUS!"  Cheers to Starbucks!

So with this wonderful fall flavor in mind, I made a cupcake with the same concept- mocha chocolate cake with caramel frosting with a sprinkle of sea salt.  

Side story:  My friend loves to laugh at me for saying that "if my engineering gig doesn't work out, I'll be a food scientist!"  Reason is- I am really interested in learning how to bake and cook based on food science... how ingredients relate to one another.. why certain foods pair with each other so well, why certain ingredients have to be cooked first (based on how they break down as they cook)... the perfect ratio of ingredients for the perfect cake.. etc.  To ensure I am learning about the balance, I measure everything out when it comes to baking a cake- and I measure in grams.  But I know that not everyone is like me, so I've converted my recipe into volumetric measurements.

Mocha Chocolate Cake

Salted Caramel Mocha Cake

1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 cup boiling water

3 large eggs

2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 package of Starbucks Via

2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)

Frosting

1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (softened)

2 cups of powder sugar

3 tablespoons of milk/ cream

1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of caramel sauce (or as desired)

medium coarse sea salt (do not use regular table salt)

Preheat oven to 350F (recipe is for (2)- 9in pans or 24 regular cupcake size pan)

For the cake:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coca and hot water until smooth- cool to room temperature.
2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, 1/4 of chocolate mixture, and vanilla.
3. In the mixing bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 secs to blend.  Add butter and the remaining cocoa mixture and mix on low speed until everything is moistened.  Increase to medium speed to aerate the batter.
4. Add the egg mixture in 3 batches, blending for 20 secs after each batch.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.
5. Beat for 30 secs more to aerate.

Scrape the batter into the chosen pan and bake for 30 mins (in the 9in pan) or 15 mins in the cupcake pans.  

For the frosting,

1. Beat the powder sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla together until white, light and fluffy.  If too runny, add more sugar, conversely, if to stiff- add more milk (each 1 teaspoon at a time)

Delicious!!!

To assemble,

Take the cooled cake and frost it any way you like.  Drizzle the caramel sauce on top as desired and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

This tasted so good and so tummy warming!  The cake was nice and moist, not gummy or fudge-y.  It literally melted in my mouth.  It has the texture of a white cake, but the deep flavors of the chocolate cake.  It has a wonderful soft and small crumb!  The caramel adds the perfect amount of sweetness to the cake.  There is the delightful crunch from the sea salt and balances the caramel perfectly.

Mr. W said "it is a chocolaty caramel heaven..."  of course, he might be a little biased so why don't you try it and tell me what you think?