Open Source Cook

sudo make dinner.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.