Baking

Tiramisu Cake

Three weeks back for my birthday, I had made this Tiramisu cake. Even though I got so drunk that I forgot to serve the cake at my birthday party (please don’t judge me as a host), the next day I got to take it for a family lunch and my whole family enjoyed it. It’s the second time I was making the recipe and I loved how it had turned out each time that I made a mental note to share it on the blog.

This blog has been active for six years now and in my first year of blogging I did post a Tiramisu cake recipe (Dorie Greenspan’s version) which I made when I had my first house guests. This recipe is slightly different than that one. While I loved the taste of that recipe, I felt a sponge cake would mimic the savoiardi biscuits that are generally used in the Italian dessert better. So instead of a cake that follows the creaming method, which is what I used in the other recipe, I used the genoise recipe from my Genoise with summer berry cake post. If you have a favorite sponge cake recipe then feel free to use that. The filling, unlike the one in the previous recipe I shared, is made the traditional way by first making a zabaglione, which is an italian egg custard. The filling, that I adapted from here, although a little time consuming, is light and airy and makes the perfect tiramisu and is the star of the cake. Believe me when I say you need this filling in your life!

When I was invited by JW Marriot for an Italian cooking class, chef Alessio told us that traditionally no marsala or alcohol is added to tiramisu, so I haven’t added it here, but you could if you want. Alcohol is always welcome in my books.

It was my mom’s birthday yesterday and while figuring out which cake to make, I thought the Tiramisu would be perfect. Since I got to take pictures this time, I am here sharing the recipe for this Tiramisu cake with you today.

I just realized this is my first blog post of 2017, and I wish all my readers a very Happy New Year! Hope you have a wonderful 2017 and wish you happiness and good health in this new year.

This year I decided I am not making any resolutions- well they are always about weight loss, and you all know how those go. I do plan to lose weight but at my own pace. The last one year saw a massive weight gain at my end. I gained 20 kgs. Through diet control and exercise I have managed to shed 8 of those kilos in the last 3.5 months. I still have a long way to go and my schedule the past few weeks hasn’t helped me much, but hopefully will get back to a healthier lifestyle.

2016 had been quite an eventful year and one that was a very significant one in my life. Although I went through a lot mentally this year, when it was coming to an end I had no feeling that I am glad this year is over. I am very happy it happened, and the lessons it taught me. I wish some things did not happen the way they did, but I have accepted the mistakes I have made and am trying my best to move on from them. I moved from Dallas back to Chandigarh, so that has been a major change as well. If you are ever in this part of the world, please do look me up.

I do have a lot planned in 2017, but one of the things that I would want to spend more time is blogging. I have realized how much this blog means to me and I love everything about it; creating new recipes, styling, shooting the food I make and then sharing it with all of you in a blog post. After getting into food and lifetstyle photography full time, the blog does take a back seat at times, but I hope this year I can be more regular with blogging and aim at 2-3 posts a week.

Like I did last year, this year too I will occasionally be revisiting old recipe blog posts and updating them with a printable recipe option as well as newer pictures. I will also be checking the recipes that I have already posted to make sure there are no errors in them. If you know of a recipe of mine, that you tried and did not come the way you would have expected to, please drop a message in the comments section and I will recheck to see if the recipe needs any tweaking.

I am always looking for ideas and recipes to create, so if there is something that you have eaten at a restaurant or a dish you would love a recipe of, please comment with your suggestions and I will keep them in mind when I am looking for new stuff to try. Any other suggestions are also welcome.

For now, I hope you enjoy this cake. Do tag me on instagram, facebook or twitter if you try this cake or any recipe out from the blog. Would love to see your version of my recipes.

Tiramisu Cake

Serves: 1 8 inch layer cake

Ingredients

For the cake (double the recipe)
3 tbsp clarified beurre noisette (I have used clarified beurre noisette as well as just melted butter and both will do too)
1 tsp vanilla
5 large eggs
½ cup sugar
75 gms sifted flour
25 gms cornstarch
For the filling (single recipe)
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
400 gms mascarpone cheese - room temperature
1 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (420 ml)
For assembly
1 cup strong cold espresso (240 ml)
1/2 cup coffee flavored Liqueur optional (120 ml)
1 ounce cocoa for dusting

Instructions

For the cake:

Prepare three 8 inch cake pans by greasing them and lining the bottoms with parchment paper and greasing it again.
Preheat oven to 350 F/ 180 C.
Melt the clarified butter and keep in a medium bowl. Add vanilla and keep warm.
Sift the flour with cornstarch.
In a large mixing bowl, set over a pan of simmering water heat the eggs and sugar until just lukewarm, stirring constantly to prevent the eggs from cooking.
Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat the mixture on high speed for 5 minutes until triple in volume.
Mix 1 scant cup of the beaten eggs and sugar mixture into the melted clarified butter. Thoroughly whisk the two together.
Using a big balloon whisk, very gently fold in ½ cup of the flour into the remaining whipped eggs. Be very careful during this step as you do not want to deflate the beaten egg mixture. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture until the flour disappears.
Gently fold in the butter mixture, making sure not to deflate the batter.
Pour into prepared pan and bake in oven for 20 to 25 min. The cake should be golden brown and the cake starts shrinking from the sides.
Loosen the sides immediately and unmould onto a greased rack at once. Invert to completely cool.

For the filling:

Mix the cold espresso with the coffee liquor. Set aside.
Over a double boiler with simmering water, heat the yolks and sugar and let cook for 10 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and whip yolks until thick and lemon-colored.
Add Mascarpone to whipped yolks, beat until combined.
In a separate bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks.
Gently fold the whipped cream in the mascarpone sabayon mixture and set aside. Though the original recipe doesn't call for it, I like to add about 2 tbsp of plain espresso to the mascarpone sabayon mixture.

Assembly:

Prick the cakes with toothpick.
On the cake stand, or serving board, place one of the cake layers.
Brush each side of the cake with the espresso liquid. Per side I use about 3-4 tbsp of espresso to brush. Except for the bottom most layer I brush both top and bottom side of the cake. Make sure you soak the cakes well.
Spoon one third of mascarpone cream filling over the cake.
Repeat process with the other two layers of cake.
Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Dust with cocoa before serving.

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