Matteo and Tiramisu

My first Colorado bestie turned 30 recently. Of course there was a little shindig for him because he should be celebrated. I was asked to make a cake or cupcakes for the dessert portion of his party. I obviously said yes, because, Uh hello....it's for Matteo!! I wanted to make him something special and came up with quite a few ideas. Then it came to me...Matteo's Italian and he loves his Italian roots. So it had to be none other than tiramisu cupcakes. I thought that would be a great way to honor him for his special day.

Now I like baking. I like cupcakes. I like tiramisu. However, I have never made tiramisu in full cake form; yet, I decide to embark on 3 dozen mini ones. Yeppers. Why do I do this to myself? I know not. I look up recipes and try to find one that will be delectable and not overly hard to make. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I was hoping to find something I could make on my first try. Let me tell you that Tiramisu is a daunting and a time stealing baking endeavor. But in short, and via photo, it went a little something like this....

First you have about a million ingredients. Yes, I'm prone to the dramatic. Below is just a few of those ingredients.



Then you start the cake portion....



Again...mixing with the hand mixer. That Kitchenaid is so elusive in my life. So sad!!



Plus you need to have a handy dandy assistant. Love you Jenn! Look at her separate those yolks and whites.



Once all the mixing is done you get this yummyness. I could have eaten the batter on its own. Yeah, I said it. Deal.



Then you put your batter in the pans and bake.



While the cupcakes are baking, you begin the decadence. The icing. Which the primary ingredients are marcapone cheese and heavy whipping cream.



On to the mixing of the icing....again, using that hand mixer. When all is said and done, you come up with this sweet, delectable, oh my gosh I'm going to eat this whole bowl icing. Just look at that photo. I was proud of myself. And mind you, I used a hand mixer. It was a hard task, but I managed. It was so yummy you would have to pause and ponder the goodness of it all.



Once the cupcakes have cooled and while your amazing, i'm going to eat the whole bowl and not feel guilty, icing is chilling you layer on the kahlua, rum and espresso mix onto the tops of cupcakes.



After that you pipe on the to die for icing and then garnish to your liking. I chose chocolate shavings and a chocolate covered espresso bean to top it all off.

Ta da....!!




These cupcakes, I can confidently stay, were fan-flippin-tastic. Everyone loved them and I felt accomplished and proud of myself--and Jenn, my patient helper. But apparently, I'm much more relaxed than I used to be. At least Jenn noted that from my easy response from when we had a few mishaps. I believe with the first problem, instead of freaking out, I said..."Uh, Houston, we have a problem!" And when Jenn appeared, she saw that the ease of how I stated my sentence was not in accordance with the disaster brewing in the oven. Note to you and to self: when you are getting a recipe from a random stranger, sometimes they leave out very important facts about how much tiramisu can rise. Yeah!! (insert the roll of my eyes right here!) But I handled it with gusto and calm, then we began again with baking..this time modifying to what we knew would happen. Overall it was a great experience. Most importantly, Matteo loved them.

That's all that matters, right?! Right.