Chocolate Tiramisu Bites
On the cover of the latest edition of the Pampered Chef Best Season’s Recipe Collection are these mini chocolate tiramisu cakes and they looked really good. So I had to attempt them, but I’m not calling mine “mini cakes”. They are very much bite-sized and easily consumable if you’re not careful. *grin*
I generally don’t like adjusting measurements when I first attempt a recipe, but this time I did. The original recipe calls for one tablespoon of water, but while I was mixing the batter, it was so thick and uncooperative, that I added two more tablespoons. Even after adding the additional water, it was still a little thick, but I don’t think it messed up the recipe at all. In fact, I would almost suggest adding a little more water to make it easier to scoop the batter into the muffin cups.
Speaking of the muffin cups, if you don’t have a small scoop, I highly suggest you get one. With how thick the batter is, the scoop made it a lot easier to make sure each cup had close to the same amount. I don’t even want to imagine trying to use two spoons to do the same thing.
The coffee taste was a little strong for me, but then again, I’m not a huge coffee lover either. However, Jesse is and even he said that the granules needed to be grounded finely. Otherwise, the taste of coffee in the cakes were pretty good.
I did mess up one thing…I added the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture and I totally wasn’t suppose to do that. Personally, I don’t think it changed the end result at all, in fact I liked it, but it did mean that there wasn’t the dual colors on top.
One other thing I didn’t do was use the coffee liqueur. I’m not sure if that changed the flavor a lot or not, but I didn’t miss it. Honestly, since neither of us really drink, I didn’t have any in the house and while there is a work around for it (down below), I simply forgot about it.
Also, the recipe says it makes 24 bite-sized cakes, but I ended up with 3 dozen using the small scoop. You know what, something else I just noticed is that in the Cook’s Tips, it only shows to use 1-2/3 cups of the cake mix from a 18.25oz package. That may be why my batter was so thick…I had a lot more than 9oz of cake mix. Mmmm….I didn’t even think to check the size of the cake mix box, I mean, it wouldn’t have dawned on me that there were various sizes.
Ingredients:
1 (9oz) pkg of devil’s food cake mix
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
3 tbsp water
1/3 cup coffee liqueur
1-1/2 cups whipped topping
8oz mascarpone or cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cups of a mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. For cakes, combine cake mix, sour cream, egg, coffee granules and water in bowl; mix well. Place 1 tbsp of batter into each muffin cup. Bake 8 – 10 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, place whipped topping into large resealable plastic bag; secure and set aside. For filling, combine cheese, sugar and vanilla in clean bowl; mix until smooth using clean scraper. Place filling into an additional resealable plastic bag; secure and set aside.
- Remove pan from oven to cooling rack. Press tops of cakes with lightly floured mini-tart shaper to make slight indentations; cool 2 minutes. Remove cakes from pan to cooling rack. Brush tops with coffee liqueur using a basting brush; cool completely.
- Trim corners of both bags. Pipe folling over cakes. Pipe whipped topping over filling. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, if desired.
Nutritional Values: 120 calories, 7g total fat, 4g saturated fat, 20mg cholesterol, 12g carbohydrate, 2g protein, 105mg sodium, 0g fiber
Cook’s Tips:
If desired, 1-2/3 cups of devil’s food cake mix from an 18.25oz package can be used for this recipe.
To substitute coffee liqueur, combine 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp instant coffee granules (finely grounded) and 1 tsp rum extract in microwavable bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high 1-2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved; cool.