Tiramisu- I needed a pick me up after that!

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts and I always loved making it for family gatherings - it was always the hit of the party.  I really wanted to make sure I offer an tiramisu cupcake which included all the elements of this classic italian dessert: sponge cake (alternative to lady fingers), espresso syrup, zabaglione, and marscapone. This cupcake is somewhat different from other tiramisu cupcakes that I've seen because I am filling it with zabaglione and I have yet to see any other cupcakery do this. 
I started with making the zabaglione which is a classic Italian cream made with eggs yolks and sugar. I made two actually... first with marsala wine and I wasn't pleased with it. I'd never made it with alcohol when making the cake version but wanted to be authentic as possible with my cupcake so I gave it a shot.  The wine was too sweet for my taste, not in a good way, so I scrapped it.  Perhaps next time I'll try the dry version.  So I made it again, only this time it was with melted chocolate/heavy cream ganache, and I omitted the wine, and it was much better. I whipped the eggs/sugar mixture until it was thick pale ribbons, folded in the warm ganache, and set is aside to cool.
Next on to the cake- I made sponge cake. This involved beating eggs and sugar again until thick ribbons. Then carefully folding in the flour mixture and heavy cream.  This produced a very airy yet dense cake that will for sure withhold being drenched in espresso syrup.

 The syrup was made with espresso, sugar, and a little marsala (yes, I tried it again here and I liked it with the espresso much better).
While the cupcakes were cooling, I prepared the marscapone/cream cheese frosting.  I used 8 oz marscapone and 8 oz cream cheese, some butter, and lots of powdered sugar adding it cup by cup until it reached the desired constinency - thick and holding semistiff peaks.
Finally, it was time to assemble the cupcakes.  First I used a melon baller to make a hole in the top of each cupcake.

Then, using a pastry brush, I bathed each cupcake with the espresso syrup making a few rounds to ensure a proper drenching.

Then I added a heaping teaspoon of the  chocolate zabaglione and closed the plug back up with the cupcake piece.

Then I made another pass around with the espresso syrup.  Finally I made a nice swirl using a large star tip and finished it off with a dusting of cocoa powder.

The end result was a delicious replica of a tiramisu in a cupcake version. When you bite into it you can see who the espresso seaped into the dense cupcake and the melon baller is definitely the way to go for fillings! Up to now, I was using a piping bag to squeeze filling into the cupcakes but that would make the cucpake puff up and lose its stabilty - I think this method is much better and you can also see just how much you are filling it up with.  Overall,  I am very pleased with my recipe and choice of ingredients and can't wait for others to enjoy this too!