Sorry for the photo quality.  Once again, I forgot to take pictures until the food was almost gone!

The office I work in has a tradition.  For each birthday staff birthday, the person who last had a birthday brings in a treat of some sort.  This is perfectly acceptable, and it’s nice that everyone celebrates together.  However, these are busy people, and half are men – which I wouldn’t count against them, except we work for a company that sells power equipment.  These guys don’t make frosting.  Which means…  Generally, the birthday treats come from the supermarket.

There have been two birthdays since I joined the crew, and I’ve baked for both of them.  For the first, I dreamed up a White Chocolate Hazelnut Pie, which I swirled with raspberry jam and baked into a beautiful crust.  The second was this week, and the birthday belonged to my beloved supervisor – who just so happens to be battling Breast Cancer.  So, of course, I needed to make something extra special for her.

After much hemming and hawing, I finally got her to tell me that her favorite dessert is the Tiramisu at Olive Garden.  Totally adorable.  But ladies…  Olive Garden ain’t got nothin’ on me.  That being said – I’ve never made Tiramisu before.  So, I turned to Google.  After a quick search, I discovered my new favorite thing ever:  Cupcake Project.  There, I discovered not only a fabulous recipe for Tiramisu Cupcakes, but also one for homemade lady fingers.  I’m not going to copy and paste the recipe to this page, but I will share my thoughts.

Tips on the Ladyfingers: I double the batter to make 24 cupcakes, but absolutely didn’t need to.  The cupcake liners should only be filled about halfway, and I found that this batter went way farther because of that.  The original recipe can probably make about 18 cupcakes.  If you fill the liners further, you can frost them like regular cupcakes – and it that case, you’ll need to bake them for about 12 minutes.

Here’s the recipe for the actual Tiramisu Cupcake creation & assembly – again, credit to Cupcake Project.

Yield: 12 Cupcakes

• 6 egg yolks
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 2/3 C milk
• 1 1/4 C heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 lb mascarpone cheese
• 1 C strong brewed coffee, room temperature
• 2 tbsp rum
• ladyfingers baked in cupcake wrappers (see my post on ladyfingers for instructions)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• a small amount of dark chocolate for chocolate curls (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended.
2. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.
3. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.
4. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.
5. Remove from refrigerator and whisk in mascarpone until smooth.  Set aside.
6. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
7. In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum.
8. Drizzle approximately 1 tbsp + 2 tsp of the coffee/rum mixture over each pre-baked ladyfinger.  Add it a little at a time and wait for it to absorb into the ladyfingers before adding more.  When it stops absorbing, stop adding more.
9. Spread the mascarpone mixture over the soaked ladyfingers.
10. Pipe or spread the whipped cream over the mascarpone.
11. Sprinkle with cocoa powder.
12. Optionally, top with chocolate curls.  Make the chocolate curls using a vegetable peeler on a piece of chocolate.  It works best if the chocolate is slightly warm, but not melty.
13. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set.

If you want to make larger cupcakes but still incorporate lots of filling, just cut a wedge out of the center and fill them with the mascarpone mix.

Technically, this isn’t a recipe I created…  Unfortunately, I just didn’t have time to photograph and write about the Bourbon Apple Pies I made tonight, which were from scratch based on my own invention.  However, I wanted to make sure that I did incorporate a second recipe for the week!  Next week I’ll whip up something extra cool for ya’ – I ordered some fun extracts from Faerie’s Finest, and I’m hoping they’ll arrive in time for some experimentation.  I also have mint chocolate chip cupcakes on the brain, so we’ll see what happens!

Once again, I’m participating in a contest to win a $500 gift card.  To help me win, please leave a comment on this post!