High Altitude Tiramisu Cupcakes

These high altitude tiramisu cupcakes have all the flavor of a classic tiramisu dessert, but in the form of soft and fluffy cupcakes. Vanilla cupcakes are soaked in espresso or strong coffee, then finished with fluffy mascarpone buttercream and a dusting of cocoa powder.

You might also love these recipes for easy tiramisu, baked chocolate espresso donuts, and coffee layer cake.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easier than Tiramisu. While I love a classic tiramisu, it does take a little more time to make, with first cooking a custard, assembling the layers of cream and coffee soaked lady fingers, and then allowing it sufficient time to chill. Today’s tiramisu cupcakes are much quicker, only taking less than two hours from start to finish.

So Much Flavor. You’ll love the combination of vanilla, coffee and chocolate, all balanced together perfectly in a not-too-sweet cupcake.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• Vanilla Cupcakes. You’ll be starting with my recipe for High Altitude Vanilla Cupcakes. They’re soft, moist, fluffy, easy to make, and a perfect base cupcake recipe.

Espresso

• For the espresso, I combined warm water with a little granulated sugar and instant espresso powder.
• You could also simply use some strong brewed coffee, but do add a little sugar, so the strong coffee doesn’t add a bitter flavor to the cupcakes.

Buttercream

• Mascarpone Cheese. Mascarpone is a traditional ingredient in tiramisu. If you don’t have mascarpone, block cream cheese works just as well.
• Unsalted Butter. A combination of butter and mascarpone/cream cheese makes a more stable buttercream, and adds a rich buttery flavor.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
• Corn Starch + Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture. If you don’t have meringue powder, you can leave it out, but do use the corn starch as it greatly improves the stability of this buttercream recipe.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Cocoa Powder. A dusting of unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder is the perfect finishing touch for these tiramisu cupcakes.

Instructions

Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line your muffin pan/s with 15 paper liners.
• Make the vanilla cupcakes as instructed.
• Gently transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool.

Espresso

• While the cupcakes are baking, make the coffee. Combine the water, sugar and espresso powder, stirring until dissolved. If you don’t have espresso powder, you can replace the water and espresso powder with very strong brewed coffee.

• Use a pastry brush to brush the espresso or coffee over the warm cupcakes. It may seem like too much espresso, but it’s not. Use it all up.
• Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting. To speed this up, you can set them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes while you make the buttercream.

Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cold mascarpone/cream cheese with the softened butter for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, corn starch, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, then add the vanilla.
• Increase the speed to medium, and beat for 3-4 minutes until smooth and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the bowl several times.
• Fit a disposable 16-inch piping bag with a large open star tip. I used tip 8B, but 6B and 1M also work well. Pipe swirls of buttercream on top of the cooled cupcakes. At this point, the cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container until ready to serve, or up to 1 day in advance.
• No more than a few hours before serving, dust the cupcakes with the cocoa powder.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!