Perfect 10

Last month I had a friend ask me to make a cake for a baby shower she was co-hosting. It had been awhile since I had been able to be creative with cake, so I jumped at the chance to create a fun little something for this intimate shower. I was pleased with the results:

Baby's parents are both pilots, so I went with a super simple airplane design and decided to have the "3-D" element of the banner flying off the back of the cake. Banner and clouds were made by making free-form shapes with white candy melts on wax paper.

For some reason, I decided to try a new cake recipe on this project, and so I had this "unfortunate" side-effect of having way, way, WAY too much cake batter, which meant I had approximately 957,000 cupcakes leftover after I made the main cake.

And let's be honest - there is only so much "cupcake with buttercream" a woman can take.

So I decide to do something different with the leftovers. After tasting them to try and see what could be done, I considered a few options and decided the flavor and consistency of the cupcakes reminded me of ladyfingers, and that's when I made my decision: Tiramisu. So here in 10 simple photographic steps is how you make a tiramisu out of your leftover cupcakes!

First, break up your cupcakes into little bite-sized pieces. Place them into a container.

You'll need about a 1/2 cup of very strong coffee to drizzle on top of your cupcakes. I used what was left in the French Press from the morning. The goal here is to impart flavor and moisture, not to use the cupcakes to sop up the coffee, so don't feel like you have to use the whole half cup. Besides, you've got an optional liquid still to add, and you don't want to end up with "Tiramushsu."

Ah, Optional Liquid: Coffee Liquer. Tia Maria, Kahlua, Copa de Ora...as long as it's coffee flavored, it's game. Remember again that we're not making soup, so a light drizzle is all that's needed. Just get the pieces a little moist on the outside.

Next you'll whip your cream, adding about 3 tablespoons of sugar and some vanilla.

And when you've finished that, you'll fold in your softened cream cheese.

Now it's time to assemble. Empty out half of your moistened cake pieces into another bowl. Top what's left with half the whipped cream/cream cheese mixture.

Repeat with what's left.

Now for the most important step: Quality control experiments must be conducted. You can't just serve this to friends and family without rigorous quality control experiments, right? Just be sure to use the right equipment.

Pretty up the Tiramisu with a little cocoa sprinkled on top. I used my loose tea strainer for a makeshift sift. Worked like a charm.

Ah, the pretty finished product!

Now it's time to enjoy your work!


Again, there's no real recipe for this; I just kind of used what I had on hand in amounts that I felt wouldn't be overwhelming. I probably used about half a cup of whipped cream to half a block of cream cheese, and there were about half a dozen cupcakes broken up in this version. Of course it is easy to increase amounts if you have a large family or want to serve this to guests. I just knew I was going to be the only one eating this and even this much was waaaaaay too much.

Not that I'm complaining. :-)