Double the fun - Tiramisu and Strawberry Cupcakes

Big event at Get Coffee this weekend with live music. Extra cupcakes were requested. I wanted to make three but time kept me to just two. I thought I'd give the adults a treat with some alcohol soaked Tiramisu Cupcakes and my previous Strawberry Cupcakes did very well so I did a reprise of those.

Both came out really well and the leftovers were taken to my father-in-law's bday party. The Stawberry ones were gone firts - the kiddos took care of that. I think I ate more of the Tiramisu that anyone else but I didn't care. They were amazing! Definitely a repeater! Bonus is the Kahlua White Russians I bought to soak them is one of my favorite drinks so I had some fun while I baked.I found the Tiramisu Cupcake recipe at Wycked Sweets. I only made a few changes including using the Kahlua White Russian mixed drink instead of vanilla liquor and brandy. I only used 1Tbs of syrup over each cake and for the minis, just 1 tsp. I felt they would be impossible to handle if I used more. As it was, they got pretty soggy so I told the coffee shop to display them in the courier I delivered them in so they wouldn't fall apart! Then she had the brilliant idea of serving them in short, fat wine glasses! Cute, right? I thought so. If you make these, be very careful not to overfill. I used generous scoops with an ice cream scooper and they overflowed a bit. A little extra icing covered it up but I'm a bit of a perfectionist w/ my baking so I wasn't happy about the mistake. The mini's came out perfect. See them soaking up the delicious syrup:
Insides filled with syrup and marscapone icing! YUMMO! I topped each one with a chocolate covered coffee bean.For the Strawberry cakes I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe for the Pefect Party Cake with a few additions. Here is the recipe:

2 1/4 cups cake flour (I used all purpose flour and they came out just fine)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt1
¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I omitted this)
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract ( I substituted vanilla extract)
Also I added a package of strawberry JELLO to give it that pretty pink color and a cup of diced strawberries.

Sift together the flour,JELLO, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant (omit this step and just put sugar and butter into mixing bowl). Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Pour batter into baking pans. Bake for 20-22 minutes (minis for 12), or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean.

I topped these goodies off with some White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing:

8 oz. cream cheese
4oz. softened unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
6 oz. melted white chocolate

Whip cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add sugar 1c. at a time until well blended. Add melted and cooled chocolate and beat until it's a good consistency. Add more sugar if you need to.