Cannoli cupcakes are sweet vanilla cake filled with sweetened ricotta cheese and bittersweet chocolate, then frosted with a rich vanilla bean buttercream. Amazing!
And on the 5th day, she just couldn’t take it anymore! OK, maybe it was the 4th. Who’s counting?
I’m fed up with typing about being sick (really – that’s not fun to read), but the other day I just couldn’t take it any more. There’s only so much sitting around in a NyQuil induced coma that one girl can take! Before I knew it I was baking cannoli cupcakes, cleaning, trying to vacuum the dog, and volunteering to go to the Home Depot with the Boyfriend… which let me tell you, is always an adventure.
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Cannoli Cupcakes
recipe adapted from Sugarcrafter, Seen on What’s Cooking, Chicago?
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon Marsala wine
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two muffin pans with cupcake wrappers; set aside.
Combine all of the dry cake ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a different, larger bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, vanilla, Marsala wine, and milk. Add in the ricotta cheese, orange zest, and powdered sugar to the wet ingredients and then add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined.
Pour the batter into cupcake liners, 24 in total. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin pans to a cooling rack. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the cannoli filling.
Cannoli filling:
- 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon zest of one orange
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, chopped fine
Preparation:
To make the filling for the cannoli cupcakes, stir together the ricotta cheese and confectioners’ sugar using a spoon. Fold in the orange zest and chopped chocolate.
When the cupcakes are cool, cut out the middles of each cupcake and using a pastry bag, pipe the cannoli filling into each cupcake, about 1 heaping tablespoon. After all the cupcakes have been filled, make the buttercream frosting.
Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting:
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
- 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar (10 ounces)
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 cup pistachios, chopped for garnish
Preparation:
In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Using a paring knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into butter and beat mixture at medium-high speed to combine, about 15 seconds.
Add confectioners’ sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds; scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 20 seconds, then increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice. Pipe the filling into a pastry bag and frost the filled cupcakes as desired. Garnish with chopped pistachios.
** I had to double this recipe to make enough frosting for all my cupcakes**
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Finally, after several days of being sick I was allowed out. We celebrated a friends birthday at PF Chang’s. Apparently a martini after a few days of NyQuil and house arrest makes me a little hyper. Even the waiter made a comment. I explained I’d been on meds and had been sick for a week and he just laughed and said he understood.
I still don’t have my voice back, but I am going to keep running at 100% – Let’s hope we all make it through the rest of this cold winter without any more incidents!
Hmm. I wonder if cannoli cupcakes will cure a common cold.
Hope you are back to your normal self soon! I hate being sick like that. These cupcakes are adorable!
Ahhh! Love this recipe…cannolis made easy, so cute! Get better!
Oh wow! Awesome job. I dig the black sprinkles!
Double delicious – cannoli cream and butter cream? That would bring me winter happiness. Nyquil makes me hyper. I love where it says “may cause excitability in kids.” Guess I’m still a kid. Hope you feel better soon.
I can only imagine the taste – heavenly! Cannoli cream and butter cream in one…wow! These had to have made you feel much better!
P.S. I love my new apron! Thank you! 🙂
I love the idea of cannoli in the form of cupcakes! I’ve never tried frying actually cannoli, but cupcakes I can do. They look great!
wow…those cannoli cupcakes are calling to me!! I do love cannoli’s and anything with cannoli filling involved!
what a pefect little cake!
Dennis
Those look so amazing!
Ooh how fun! These look delicious! Glad to hear the Nyquil fog has lifted & you’re feeling better!
I Love this cupcake idea! And hope you’re feeling better.
OMG! Cannoli is my absolute favorite all time dessert! To put that in a cupcake is just too much! I think I need to go lie down…Or get up & make these!
You are making ym tummy growl with these pictures! I can only imagine how good they are!
What a fun cupcake. I love the cannoli concept.
You manage to make such cute cupcakes.. 🙂 these sounds great, I love the filling
Still sick!?! Still w/ Nyquil! SORRY! … But at least the cupcakes look amazing!
Kita, what gorgeous cupcakes!!! And the surprise filling is an added bonus 🙂
These cupcakes look amazing! I was just looking at a cannoli recipe, but I think I may prefer to try them in a cupcake. Love it!
glad you are feeling better, those cupcakes look might tasty love the photos especially the one with all the colored paper so bright for the winter!
I hope you’re feeling better! Nothing like a cupcake to perk you up, though! I love the idea of having a cannoli in cupcake form, I know a lot of my friends would love this!
I’ve been sick this week too and can totally understand! I want to bake, but I don’t want to expose my coworkers to virus-laden cookies 🙂 These cupcakes do look yummy, maybe I can make some just for me. I don’t mind my own viruses!
You are just sick of being sick! And I don’t blame you. Well, at least your baking and photos turned out beautiful as always. Get better soon!
Those are wonderful! I am sorry to hear you are still sick. Hopefully all of that activity just worked the germs right out of your system.
Just finished making these. Definitely not as great as I thought they would be. Had to add 1/2 cup more powdered sugar to the cannoli filling otherwise it wasn’t sweet at all! I too had to double the frosting recipe to have enough for all of the cupcakes. Also, I followed the recipe word for word and MIXED the butter, eggs, vanilla, etc and found that the butter was still lumpy (I used room temperature butter as the recipe called for). I figured I’d leave it because the directions didn’t say to cream the butter first, so it must be how it’s supposed to look. When the cupcakes came out of the oven they were very greasy/buttery. If I were to make these again I would definitely cream those wet ingredients together rather than mix. I know it’s just a play on words, but it matters!