High Altitude Tiramisu Cupcakes
Soft vanilla cupcakes, soaked in espresso, then finished with fluffy mascarpone buttercream and a dusting of cocoa powder.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 1 recipe High Altitude Vanilla Cupcakes
Espresso
- ½ cup warm water
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 4 tsp instant espresso powder
Buttercream
- 4 oz cold mascarpone cheese (or block cream cheese)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tsp meringue powder, optional
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
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.
Notes
Store leftover cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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