Tiramasu Cupcakes

In the job I have, motivating students and rewarding them for good work can be an asset in achieving great results. With this in mind, I invited my new student leader team to dinner. I made some lasagna and we talked about good things in the past year and good things they want to see happen on campus in the year to come. To cap off the meal I treated them to Martha's take on an Italian classic, Tiramasu.

Having never had tiramasu before I'm not sure what I was getting into but I read the recipe to prepare. And I knew that Tiramasu needed coffee, less than a cup. Those who know me, know I don't know how to brew coffee to save my life. (Plus for such a small amount). So when I went to the store to get the marscapone cheese (for the icing) and marsala wine (for the syrup) I stopped by Dunkin Donuts for a small cup of black coffee. It worked.

The batter for these are very eggy and bake up almost like a thick eggy custard. Then you paint them with the coffee -marsala syrup until there is none left (that's like a million strokes per cupcake--so I got tired and cheated and poured a tablespoon each on them). Then let them rest and soak in the goodness. Whipping up the frosting was simple. It's like making sweet marscapone mousse. (I only used half the tub of marscapone. I used the rest for a quick dinner with my husband. boiled pasta, sauteed some onions and cherry tomatoes then tossed it all together with the marscapone--it melts and turns into a kind of sauce. Not bad).

To add flare for the presentation for my students I dusted the tops with cocoa powder arranged them on a plate and presented them to shouts of WOOHOO.



I had leftovers which my community group got to enjoy (as usual) and also brought some to the Zila's house since Jen and I were having lunch. Turns out, tiramasu is Jon Zila's favorite dessert so I won Friend of the Day award.

Last Bite: These were addictive little suckers (maybe the coffee, maybe the marscapone...) and they feel very fancy but are fairly simple despite being 3 steps (cake, syrup and frosting). These will stay in the upscale rotation or whenever I'm having an Italian night.

Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes

(Sorry for the lapse).

So 3 weeks ago we held our last Large Group of the semester for my students at Rutgers. Now some of them (hey guys) read this so I figured I would treat them on this last get-together with a cupcake. But which to choose. Well, when you are leading a chapter that has grown to 80--I started looking at which cupcakes have a high yield. Enter the Mini Cupcake. These little cuties pack in that great taste in bite-size bunch. My students are a big fan of Bubble Tea so I thought the Chai Tea minicakes would be a nice fit.



This cupcake uses black tea or chai tea bags to flavor the milk that one adds to the batter. It smells so good as you make it. Then to boost the spice factor you add cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves to the flour mixture. As they baked they smelled a bit like plain dunkin donuts munchkins. It was nice.

These cakes are dense little nuggets and to top them off Martha suggests a sweetened condensed milk icing to complement the chai flavor and reflect the use of sweetened condensed milk in authentic traditional chai tea. It's a sweet liquidy frosting that requires you to dip the cupcake in and then it hardens. It's nice and all but the icing only asks for about 1/2 the can of Sweetened condensed milk which then leaves the question: What do you do with the rest of the can? (I came up with nothing).


The students loved them and were so happy to be able to sample part of the cupcake experience. The cakes get drier and denser as time goes on but that works well when having them for tea.

Last Bite: These are cute little cakes with a nice subtle savory flavor that could work for a classic tea time but I think I will more likely make this as a big cake, maybe a Bundt cake and use the frosting as a glaze.