TIRAMISU CAKE

Another hectic weekend.  Sometimes I wonder where time goes.  My son turned 16 on Sunday - whoever coined the term Sweet Sixteen was definitely not a parent.  Had to be one of the kids.  Its a terribly tough age and much as I love my kids Sweet is not a word I associate with them in their teens.  

I can beat my head asking him what he wants to eat and the answer is always the "Anything".  Does anyone know what or how to make Anything :)

So this birthday I decided to make him his favourite dessert in form of a cake - a Tiramisu Cake.  

I started this by making a basic vanilla sponge - you can use your favourite recipe.  Alternatively you could also use a chocolate sponge - thats a personal choice.

The tiramisu filling is a beautiful mascarpone, cream, coffee egg yolk filling which holds beautifully.

I have to admit that I have alsolutely no decoration skills.  After spending time racking my brains on what to do with the designing I remembered some chocolate transfer sheets that were lying around, so I just usedthat around the circumference of the cake and piped some cream on top.

All said and done the cake tasted really good.

Recipe for Tiramisu Cake

For the Cake

Just use your favourite Vanilla or Chocolate Sponge Cake - 

Let the cake cool completely before proceeding further.  Please remember never to put the cake under a fan to cool it faster.  It hardens terribly.  

Once cake has cooled, cut into 3 even layers.

For soaking the cake

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp instant coffee

Boil the milk, water and sugar together.  Turn off the heat and add in the coffee and stir to dissolve.  Keep aside and bring to room temperature

For the Filling

• 2 egg  yolks
• 1/4 cup castor sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 200 gms mascarpone
• 2 tbsp Kahlua or Bailey's Irish Cream

Beat the cream to stiff peaks and keep aside.

In a medium sized bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar till thick and pale in colour.  Mix in the mascarpone till smooth.  Do not overmix.

Fold in the cream and liquer.

Assembling the cake

• Using a loose bottom tin, put one layer of the cake at the bottom
• Brush 2 tbsp of the coffee over the sliced layer
• Top with 1/3 of the filling mixture, smoothing out same.
• Repeat with the second and third layers of the cake.

1st cake layer in the loose bottom tin

soaking mixture

Tiramisu Filling on the 1st layer

I iced the cake with some of the whipped cream and put in the freezer to set.  Then I used the chocolate transfer to circle the cake.