That is not a cup of coffee you see, it’s tiramisu cake. Tiramisu is my husband’s favorite dessert. When I told him I was making a tiramisu cake as part of Tuesday’s with Dorie, he was perplexed. Why? Tiramisu needs to remain what it is. He means the traditional recipe.
I will have to agree with him. The cake, while a great tasting cake, seems to be a dessert unto itself. Even though the cake was good to eat, that frame of reference comparing it to tiramisu was there and that made it hard to appreciate. A traditional tiramisu is soaked with liquor and espresso and slathered with mascarpone cheese, made into a fluffy custard, and best eaten with a spoon. The ratio of cream to cake is closer to 1 to 1. This recipe threw us off a bit, because there is a lot more cake than cream.
The recipe calls for espresso syrup and Kahlúa (or amaretto or brandy), but I think it needed more of each. As much as I thought I soaked the cake with the syrup, it went almost unnoticed and I had a feeling it wasn’t enough. Maybe it was something in the way I made the cake, but it needed more espresso flavor. And it needed to be wetter. But, as you can see, I can’t seem to get away from comparing it to a traditional tiramisu.
Aside from making a large cake, I made two smaller tarts, just right to put into the above cappuccino cups. I think I like it best made this way, and eaten more like pudding cake, as long there is added syrup to make the cake really wet.
Having said all of that, I’ve thought about this a lot over the last few days and if I were to remake it, I would do one of several things:
• Slice each cake in two, making it a four-layer cake and soaking each layer with a bit more espresso syrup.
• Make cupcakes and fill each with some of the cream and again on top, layer the chocolate between two layers of cream frosting.
• Make one layer in a rectangular pan and double the syrup.
Mascarpone Cheese, a Key Ingredient
The good news is that it is still hard to go wrong with anything that has mascarpone cheese, a triple cream cheese, originating in Italy.
The cows that produce mascarpone are fed herbs and flowers. Can you imagine the thought behind that? It is not really a cheese, but a culture that is added to the cream of skim milk. It is delicious eaten by itself with fruit, often seen in dessert cakes, but can also be included in a savory dish and made into a pasta sauce, I discovered at One Ordinary Day.
It’s quite rich, and a little goes a long way. It used to be found only in gourmet stores, but the popularity of tiramisu has made mascarpone much more readily available at the local grocer.
Recipe Ingredients
Cake
2 cups cake flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 1/4 cups butter unsalted, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
Espresso Extract
2 T instant espresso powder
2 T boiling water
Espresso Syrup
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlúa, or brandy
Filling and Frosting
1 8 oz mascarpone
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoons amaretto, Kahlúa or brandy
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 1/2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped or 1/2 cup chocolate chips
It is suggested that this cake be served cool, but not cold.
Key Words: Dessert, Tuesdays with Dorie, Tiramisu Cake, Cake
Spinach Tiger Entry 48- Angela Roberts, Tuesdays with Dorie, Tiramisu Cake
All original content copyright © 2009 Angela Roberts, All Rights Reserved
