perfect chocolate cupcakes

oooh, i finally found the perfect chocolate cupcakes! after depending only on devil's food cake which by the way is too chocolatey and i think a whole other kind of chocolate cupcakes. i finally YES found it!
i photographed these tasties with my brand new lens nikkor 50mm/f1.8 and look at them! soooo pretty cupcake shots rite? heehee..
i frosted them with chocolate cheese frosting and trust me, they taste like ice cream! super!

oh enough words, lets just go to the pictures.

sugar crawler

hi blog! i miss you blog! tee hee!
these are pictures from my very first booth in a two days weekend market. the market was located in kemang and i was there with my bake goods. 6 flavors of cupcakes plus 4 kind of cookies? equal pheew! im-so-tired-but-im-so-happy-too. sooo looking forward for more markets :D

that day's flavors were pink lemonade, cookies and cream, devil's food cake, red velvet, chocolate -filled peanut butter, vanilla caramel.
and the cookies were chocolate chip, chocolate candy and oreo cookie.
YUMMY!

best big fat chewy chocolate chip cookies, yes it is!

so i've found my go-to chocolate chip cookies.. though i still have many many many recipes of chocolate chip cookies in my soon-to-try list, but this one is my favorite as for now.. even my close friend asked me to bake for her aaaad.. she was willing to pay for it aaand.. she's already ordered a dozen of these cookies for christmas!
yes! these cookies are that good!

BEST BIG FAT CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

red velvet cake, AGAIN!

yess, i made red velvet cake again and again and again, this cake has been a favorite cake in my house, though the 'favorite' word here means 'mom thinks this cake looks so good so lets give people red velvet cake/cupcakes' get it? sigh!
well, i personally like the martha stewart's recipe for red velvet cake but i gave this hummingbird bakery's recipe a shot after read my friend's (who used to live in london where hummingbird bakery located) facebook status saying that she's missing hummingbird bakery red velvet cake. i've read that hummingbird bakery's red velvet cake is pretty famous in london and i

actually wanted to visit the bakery when i was in london, but alas, it wasnt the nicest trip and one thing led to another and no hummingbird bakery for me :( :(

so i browsed the net and found the recipe from joy the baker who declared that this's her favorite red velvet cake recipe. oh, how i wish i bought the book.
so i bake them. when i was in front of the fridge and found a cup of cream cheese, the idea of making black bottom cupcake passed and another idea of 'why not red velvet bottom cupcakes' came.
oh yes! red velvet and cream cheese are match made in heaven and cream cheese frosting is kinda so-yesterday.

so here it is, red velvet bottom cupcakes. NICE! YUMMY! may i say i like these cupcakes better than the cake. though the center was a bit soggy but still, NICE!

i baked the cake the next day. i like it but..errr..noo.. i like martha better :D

hummingbird bakery red velvet cake from joy

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 egg
5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons red food coloring mixed with 2 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Turn mixer to high and add the eggs. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together cocoa, vanilla and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter, mixing thoroughly until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

Turn mixer to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk. Add half of the flour and salt and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour. Beat on high until smooth.

Turn mixer to low and add baking soda and white vinegar. Turn to high and beat a few more minutes.

Spoon batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean.

Let rest in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.


cream cheese whipped frosting

4 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar (you may adjust the sugar)
250 ml whipping cream

whip the whipping cream with sugar then mix it with softened cream cheese.


cream cheese filling for the red velvet bottom cupcakes from deb

8 ounces cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

chocolate cake donuts

I LOVE BAKING! im 21, study interior design and love to bake. every single person i met always raised their eyebrows when they hear the fact that i love baking. they even dropped their eye balls down when they hear about how often i ditch classes for baking.
how i prefer to bake than working on assignments.

i proudly tell you all that im one of a kind.

okay, chocolate cake donuts, i like baking with the donuts pan, they are cuttttteee.. that's all..

MARTHA STEWART'S ONE BOWL CHOCOLATE CAKE

* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup warm water
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 3 tablespoons safflower oil
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease donuts tins with butter; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
2. Divide batter evenly among each donuts, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
3. glaze them with white chocolate ganache

martha's red velvet cakes! not red enough

there's me, the world and red velvet cakes..
seriously.. the indonesian isnt familiar with red velvet cake, when i brought the cupcakes version of this red velvet cake to campus today, i had to explain what the hell is red velvet cake, over and over.. but they LOVED it!!

i feel so silly if i looked back to couple years ago when i started this baking craze and baked my first red velvet cupcakes without knowing how it tastes, yessss, i didnt know how it tastes until few months ago when i had my first red velvet cupcakes in london, they tasted BLEH fyi.. too sweet for my liking :( and at the almost same time, my good friend tasted the famous red velvet cupcake from the famous sprinkles in L.A, she couldnt like anything more :D

okay, imagine me, rookie baker even rookier than now, without any clue about what red velvet except that it looked red and so good.. total silly! the result was a wreck cake!
but after this martha stewart's recipe red velvet cake is an easy peasy, heehee..
the cake is so moist and... VELVET-y! i love martha!
the only problem was only the red color, it wasnt red enough. but still! me liiiike red velvet!

red velvet cupcakes (cake)
Makes 24

* 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
* 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 2 large eggs, room temperature
* 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
* Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

frost them with your favorite frosting, i frosted the cake with my own cream cheese frosting creation and the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream (no pictures of the cupcakes)

baked donuts! not homer simpson's donuts for sure

hmmmmm..donuuuuttt..
i always love those donuts in the simpsons, you know? pink glaze and sprinkles? we dont have that kind in jakarta.. krispy kreme is new in town, well, they got into indonesia like couple years ago and became a hit ever since. dunkin donuts? yes, we have that and loosing the shine. krispy kreme beats them! ah, another donut brand is called j.co and the stores are limited to asia only.
which one is my favorite? hmmm.. lets see... i grew up eating dunkin donuts, the plain sugar and strawberry jelly is my favourite, my brother the king of picky eater loooves the strawberry jelly so a dozen of jelly donuts is still make a regular appearance in my house.
how about krispy kreme? i fall in love with the glazed donut, french crullers and chocolate cake donut but IM FAT and i wont making my self even fatter by eating those. j.co? gah! its love hate relationship. so i think krispy kreme is my favorite.

now about these baked donuts.. its good, dense and not soft at all.. nothing like the deep fried ones, but these are healthy so.... what to say? but good thing, my brother (the non-picky eater) gobbled them fast :D

BAKED DONUTS
adapted from here, lovely blog!

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granuated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs,beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp sour cream

1:Preheat oven to 325 F.Sieve flour and baking powder in a medium bowl then combine with sugar.
2:Beat egg one at a time with milk,oil ,sour cream and vanilla extract until well blended.Then combine with flour mixture,mix vigorously until well blended.
3:Lightly spray donut pan with non-stick oil if not using non-stick pan.Pour batter into molds up to 2/3 full.
4:Bake 8-10 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.Remove from oven and let it's cool down before glaze or cinnamon and sugar if desired.
5:Decorate with your favourite topping.Serve as snack.

carrot cake, not my first!

my first date with carrot cake was in milan, two years ago and it wasnt really a carrot cake.. it was muffin. before that, my opinion about carrot cake was 'YUCK!' carrot is for soup not cake!
i bought my first carrot cake, sorry, muffin in autogrill cafe near pizza duomo, that cafe filled with tourists because simply italian dont drink coffee from autogrill (CMIIW?)
that first bite of carrot muffin and im hooked! the next day, well, the next time we found autogrill cafe, mom bought all the carrot muffins they have. dang! we snacked them all the way from milan to venice. we're saved!
so when i got back home to indonesia, i looked for carrot cake or muffin or whatever in few cafes here in jakarta but frankly, i dont like them, totally hate it! they tasted YUCK YUCK YUCK! time flew and i forgot. but not that total marvelous carrot muffin i had in italy.
then i spent last summer in swansea, wales and had not-so-good-but-quiet-okay carrot cake from a cafe inside debenhams. not-so-good-but-quiet-okay carrot cake is not what i expected, it couldnt cure my love-sick for an autogrill carrot muffin. i was dissapointed.
but nooooo.. this is a happy ending story, dont worry! at the very last minute of my summer holiday, i found the perfect carrot cake, it was from starbucks at dubai airport, i bought the last slice and ate it on plane, HOOKED HOOKED HOOKED!!! it was superb! of course different from the ones i had in italy but equally great! the cream cheese icing was a bit cheesecake-y and the cake was just perfect! i loooved it! that carrot cake was my summer lovin'

first thing i baked after i landed home is a carrot cake, i googled the recipe with 'starbucks carrot cake' as a keyword and guess what? found it! so i made carrot cake with that recipe plus the cream cheese icing. the result? well... it was good, different from any other carrot cake i've tasted, but not great.. for my liking at least because some people gave a good review about that carrot cake.
so the quest continued and i landed in my favorite kitchen, SMITTEN! and she once again score it!! her carrot cake is the great (though not perfect) cake for me and my mom liking, oh have i told you about my mom and her issues? well, i'll tell you about it some other time, just want you to
know.. she's a picky eater, QUEEN OF PICKY EATER gosh, how i hate her!

the cake is dense and moist, more like the one i had from debenhams. this time i skip the icing part just because my mom hate cheese! yes people, she hates cheese! and butter too! weird!
but the most important thing is i finally found the great carrot cake recipe (yet so far) and mom been asking me to bake more. YAY!

carrot cake adapted from smitten kitchen (thank you deb!)
original recipe here

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 teaspoon of all-spicce
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350&176;F.

Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time then vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them.

To make a carrot layer cake: Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans instead of cupcake molds. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

i'll make them with raisins and walnuts next time!

mocha cupcakes, martha's

i actually baked these cupcakes couple weeks ago and somehow forgot to post these to this blog.
i remember i read somewhere that the quality of your ingredients plays the biggest part on how good the bake goods will come out. and sadly, i havent find the 'it' dutch-processed cocoa.. oh okay, maybe i have, but its not BEST! its just..err.. fine? okay?
and for the usual cocoa powder? A.K.A hershey's?? good god, its sooooo expensive well, if you can find it actually.. hershey's cocoa powder is a really scarce stuff in indonesia.

so to be honest.. about these cupcakes? the cake tasted nice though the taste of the cocoa powder is not really for my liking. i should just frosted these with mocha ganache actually and maybe they would come out better.
because the seven minute frosting tasted horrible! again, not because the recipe..but only because the mocha extract i used.. they tasted BLEH!
so seriously, if my baked goods taste nasty, its all would be because the sick-ass ingredients!

Martha Stewart's Mocha Cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
3/4 cup freshly brewed espresso
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (not instant coffee)

Seven-Minute Frosting (coffee variation)

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tablespoons pure coffee extract

CUPCAKE DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C). Line standard muffin tins with paper line
Whisk together cake flour and cocoa. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth and light. Add the brown sugar and eggs; beat until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the vanilla, baking soda, and salt; beat to combine thoroughly.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Mix together brewed espresso and espresso powder; add to batter, and beat until smooth.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely be¬fore removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
To finish, use a small spoon to dollop cupcakes generously with frosting and make decorative peaks. Garnish each cupcake with a coffee bean before serving.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS (MARTHA STEWART)

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230°F (110°C).
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.
As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230°F (110°C), remove from the heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons coffee extract, whisking to combine. Use immediately.

chewy marshmallow-y blondies

as an indonesian, blondies isnt a famous dessert but it sister brownies in the other hand, are veeeery famous, we the indonesian even invented steamed brownies which tastes good and light but not as chewy and rich as the regular brownies.. no ma'am, indonesian brownies are much lighter and cakey.
so talkin about blondies, i myself never tried it until i bake my very own.. in my opinion, the blondies would taste butterscotch-y, caramel-y and cookies-y.. add chocolate chip and TADA! a chocolate chip cookies bars..

so, i headed to my favorite kitchen, smitten.. and found the recipe..
i added walnut and 1/2 cup of marshmallow creme other than the chocolate chip.
it tastes good and different for my tongue, but frankly.. it tastes even better the next day.

BLONDIES
adapted from smitten kitchen

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon rum (all because i ran out of vanilla)
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts
1/2 cup marshmallow creme

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middled cookie. Cool on rack before cutting them.

Further additions, use one or a combination of:

* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
* 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
* 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
* 1/2 cup mashed bananas
* 1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
* 2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
* Stir 1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries, into the prepared batter
* Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

martha's tiramisu cupcakes

as a rookie baker, Martha stewart’s cupcakes book is my first Martha book and boy, I love it! I first got into baking is when I saw tower of colorful cute mini cakes in seventeen magazine, few years ago. There was the recipe for those mini cakes which apparently named cupcakes but juggling with teenage hormonal, high school and jerk boyfriends left me no time to bake cupcakes. Time flew and two years ago I asked, well, forced my mom who isn’t a baking person at all (well, she bakes actually, only some traditional cakes with no exact measuring, duhh!) to buy a tiny weeny electric oven (yesss! There wasn’t a real oven in my mom’s kitchen until that time) and take me to supermarket to buy the ingredients. I got the recipe for classic vanilla cupcakes from cupcakes.net by the way.
Okay, so it was time for my first cupcakes, I followed the recipe from a to t and the result was MEH! Super MEH! I threw them to garbage immediately. But I didn’t give up, I tried and tried again, I started to buy baking books and browsed more about baking and cupcakes.
So here I am, still a rookie even after two years ☺ but with real gas oven.

On to martha’s tiramisu cupcakes which is reeeeaaally good! The cake is one of the best cakes I ever bake, so spongy and lady fingers-alike.. though I tweaked the recipe by omitting the vanilla bean and used rum instead. Oh sigh, I do lot of tweaking in my baking experiences, I rarely following the exact recipe (is it bad?) sometimes I even just throw the ingredients according to my insting (I don’t have recipe for my buttercream frosting) maybe that’s why I always a rookie in baking.

Anyway, the frosting isn’t really a mascarpone frosting because the mascarpone I have is ruined already, I don’t know why, it didn’t pass the expire date also.
So I just whipped the whipping cream and frosted the cupcakes. i topped them with chocolate shaved, generous amount of chocolate shaved.
Well, its still a good tiramisu cupcakes! really good! I certainly will make them again.

Martha stewart’s tiramisu cupcakes
From Martha stewart’s cupcakes book
Makes 18

1 ¼ cups cake flour (not self-rising) sifted there is no cake flour here so I made my own following
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved length-wise, seeds scraped and reserved I omit this and used rum instead
½ stick unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
coffee marsala syrup (recipe follows)
mascarpone frosting (recipe follows)
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting I used chocolate shavings
1.preheat oven to 325 F. line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat, whisk in butter until melted and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk misture through a fine sleve into a bowl and discard vanilla-bean pod.

2.with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

3.Gently but thouroughly fold the flour mixture into the eggs mixture in three batches, stir ½ cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

4.Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full, bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks and cool completely before removing cupcakes.

5.To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup, repeat until all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes, refrigerate up to overnight in air-tight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

Coffee-marsala syrup rum in my case
Makes enough for 18 cupcakes

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
1 ounce marsala
¼ cup sugar

stir together coffee, marsala and sugar until sugar is dissolved, let cool.


Mascarpone frosting
Makes about 2 cups

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mascarpone cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup confectioners sugar, sifted

with an electric mixer on the medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately