tiramisu cake
Last Saturday was my darling Jocelyn’s birthday and you just know I wasn’t going to even think about showing up without birthday cake. Fortunately, just about everyone we know agrees that two of the best desserts on earth are cannolis from Venieros on First Avenue and homemade tiramisu. I was actually kind of obsessed with figuring out a way to make a cannoli cake, but in the end copped out, not feeling daring enough to invent a recipe and having waited until the very last minute (3 p.m.) to actually start baking.
Not for the first or last time, Dorie Greenspan came to the rescue. As if Baking: From My Home to Yours wasn’t awesome enough, it actually includes two cake sections, one devoted solely to “Celebration Cakes,” or the exact type you’d want to bring to a birthday party. But all are so much more exciting than just yellow cake and butter cream frosting, such as Black and White Chocolate Cake, Big Carrot Cake, Perfect Party Cake and Tiramisu Cake. I stopped right there, and started this:
Which ended up like this:
And was received like this:
I’m very particular about tiramisu, by the way. It’s one of my favorite desserts yet most times I order it, I find it disappointing. Typically, I don’t think there is enough of a recognizable coffee flavor to it. I think it tastes best with marsala or brandy, not Kahlua. Often the tiny cakes are not soaked enough. I think that the chocolate layers should be a bed of almost crinkly shaven very bitter chocolate. This cake, however, knew I was coming and made everything just right. And the guest of honor? It looks like she concurred. I couldn’t be more proud.
[Photo by our friend Lexxie.]
Tiramisu Cake
Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
For the cake layers:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
For the espresso extract:
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons boiling water
For the espresso syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (Deb note: I used brandy)
For the filling and frosting:
1 8-ounce container mascarpone
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (Deb note: I used brandy)
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or about 1/2 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Chocolate-covered espresso beans, for decoration (optional)
Cocoa powder, for dusting
Getting ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9×2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.
To make the cake:
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right-side up.
To make the extract:
Stir the espresso powder and boiling water together in a small cup until blended. Set aside.
To make the syrup:
Stir the water and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil. Pour the syrup into a small heatproof bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the espresso extract and the liqueur or brandy; set aside.
To make the filling and frosting:
Put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liqueur in a large bowl and whisk just until blended and smooth.
Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir about one quarter of the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a light touch.
To assemble the cake:
If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Place one layer right-side up on a cardboard round or a cake plate protected with strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a pastry brush or a small spoon, soak the layer with about one third of the espresso syrup. Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over the layer - user about 1 1/4 cups - and gently press the chopped chocolate into the filling. Put the second cake layer on the counter and soak the top of it with half the remaining espresso syrup, then turn the layer over and position it, soaked side down, over the filling. Soak the top of the cake with the remaining syrup.
For the frosting, whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling. Taste the frosting as you go to decide how much extract you want to add. If the frosting looks as if it might be a little too soft to spread over the cake, press a piece of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so. Refrigerate the cake too.
With a long metal icing spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and over the top. If you want to decorate the cake with chocolate-covered espresso beans, press them into the filling, making concentric circles of beans or just putting some beans in the center of the cake.
Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours (or for up to 1 day) before serving - the elements need time to meld.
Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with cocoa. I cut a star shape out of waxed paper and placed it lightly over the cake, and shaved a layer of chocolate over it with a microplane, before carefully removing the star to leave a stenciled shape.
This looks amazing. I use Marsala instead of Kahlua, but I’m a sucker for anything coffee / espresso and chocolate for dessert.
Your recipe looks interesting. I must admit that best recipe I ever read for Tiramisu was at CookingforEngineers! I have to try your to be able to compare two recipes. Looking forward to that because I adore Tiramisu!
Sanja
Wow! I can almost taste it.
I agree, it tastes my better with something like brandy. That’s what I’ve used in my tiramisu before. Looks incredible- and I love the star!
Tiramisu is one of my favourites too, but I’ve only ever made it at home. This looks really good!
I made a tiramisu cake for Quinn’s birthday last year, and it was definitely a hit. I had a few technical difficulties with it. I don’t think my icing was thick enough. I should try this recipe. It seems a bit different than the one I tried.
The cake looks amazing, I can practically taste it. However, my heart skipped a beat at the mention of Venieros. mmmmm. How I miss thee, Venieros.
*Flutters eyelashes prettily* Do you have plans for Dec 14th? Because if you and you’re cake happen to be in Houston on the first celebration of my 29th birthday, we shan’t turn you away.
This looks fabulous! Now I just need an excuse to make it!
This looks like a wonderful cake, and you made it look absolutely beautiful. I love Tiramisu, but I hate it when the savoiardi are mushy! Cake layers would be perfect.
I have a really nice recipe for a cannoli cake if you ever decide to make one. I used this at my wedding. My cousin used to work at Sal & Dom’s on Allerton Ave in the Bronx and learned a lot of tricks there.
I made the same cake a few months ago, and think it’s a wonderful recipe! I always use Kahlua though. Prefer it for its coffee flavor. Maybe I should try making Tiramisu with Marsala or Brandy next time.
I love the star on top - what a great and festive way to present this cake. There’s no more personal thing you could have done for her birthday. Very cool.
It looks wonderful and I’m printing it out to make soon. Sorry for the novice questions but where can I find espresso powder? Is it just ground espresso beans? And, where can I find Marscapone cheese? At the cheese counter? In with the dairy? Finally, I’m always confused when I’m told to make the butter creamy…is this at a very high speed? Medium speed? Does the speed matter? Thanks.
Don’t apologize for asking questions. :) I found espresso powder (brand called Ferrari, I think) at our grocery store, I think it’s pretty common but I can only speak for what’s around us. Marscapone is sometimes at the cheese counter, sometimes in the dairy section (tub like sour cream or cream cheese) depending on the store. If the butter is at room temperature, making it creamy should be easy at medium or high speed. The idea is to get it very, very soft so the other ingredients will easily mix in. Good luck!
your comment about cannoli cake reminds me of a story…i had cannoli cake for every birthday until i was about 9, when i finally had the wherewithal to say, “mom, how come you order YOUR favorite cake for all of my birthdays?”. after that, i got to pick, and i usually went for a superamerican yellow cake with strawberry filling and whipped cream. but these days, living so far from the itailan neighborhood i grew up in? i would KILL for cannoli cake.
where do you find instant espresso powder? i’ve a few recipes that call for it, but have never seen it in any grocery stores or even specialty stores.
Oh wow, wow, wow! I am so going to make this! Lucky birthday girl!
Made that cake for the first time over a year ago and it is still the one that people request the most. Like you, I am (and the rest of the family) pretty picky about Tiramisu.
i don’t even like tiramisu (sounds blasphemous, i know) but i find this looking incredibly delicious
that looks so good!! And I love the star and how you arranged the candles on top.
When in doubt, a Dorie recipe is always the way to go!
Oh wow. I’ve got a tiramisu cake recipe, but with lady fingers that ring the thing, not something from scratch like this. I’m for sure going to make this the next time I need a birthday cake. Keep up the good work.
I just had amazing tiramisu from a place nearby and I was thinking about how hard it is to find good tiramisu and that I really need to learn to make it. And now you go and post this. I think I will have to make this cake as my own birthday present in a couple weeks.
I am the same way…when I order tiramisu out at a restaurant, I am almost always disappointed.
I’ve had this Dorie recipe earmarked for some time. Yours looks very tempting!
I want to hear the Pillsbury dough story!
Deb - I know this is off-topic, but please please please consider making a Smitten Kitchen calendar. I would so totally buy one or two or a few. Of course, it would have to include your amazing poached-egg-yolk photo or the whole deal is off.
Would you consider it? In all your free time and all?
I think I’m with Leah, but I couldn’t pick favorite pictures.
I’m starting to think about holiday cookie baking. Although I have a standard list of cookies(chewy oatmeal cherry, almond and apricot rugelach, spicy molasses) that I make every year, I’m always on the hunt for my next new addition. Wondering if you have a standard list—and/or any new recipes you’re trying this holiday.
Jenifer from Houston — Actually, I’ll be sunbathing on a beach. Poor me, eh?
StickyGooeyCreamyChewy — I know this is terribly *wrong* but I love it when the little cakes are mushy. Ugh, I know. Anyway, these cake layers are not at all–perfect solution for everyone but me. I would love, love, love to take a peek at your cannoli cake recipe. Have you blogged it?
dan — We found it at Whole Foods or a store like that a while ago, but if you can’t find it at a grocery store, I’d try an Italian specialty store. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have it.
Tartelette — Great minds! And love that you made the cranberry/caramel tart too.
mary — I joked to Alex that I am the only person on earth who could find a tiramisu recipe that required more work than actual tiramisu, what with the baking the cake layers from scratch and a frosting that is slightly different from the filling. I might actually try using lady fingers next time, just to see how it compares.
Jessica — It’s not much of one, but I’ll get to it. It’s part of a Thanksgiving post-mortem entry I deemed too boring to post. Also, our heat wasn’t working on Friday night and I was cranky, thus not able to write anything fun. Hence, the new NaBloPoMo tag (top left) with the “almost” above it. And to think you just asked about pie crust!
Leah, Shelly — Thanks for the encouragement. Alex and I looked into it this morning, and I just don’t think it will be feasible for a few reasons. One, I read a lot of complaints that the printing quality at Lulu.com has gone down significantly this year, and that’s the easiest place to get this done. Two, to use Lulu’s basic shipping and get the calendar by Xmas, one would have to order it by Dec. 12, which is awfully soon! Third, and this is really my biggest concern, although our pictures often look good enough on the Web, because we don’t shoot in RAW, I’m terrifically nervous about their print quality. I hope to start using RAW in the new year, which will allow us to create prints, calendars and what-nots a lot more professional quality.
Jenny — We must be on the same page, as I am too. I created some thumbnail images throughout the sidebar on the left linking to cookies I have created for this site in the past. There are even more in the full Cookie category. Expect to see a lot more in December, too. Yay.
gorgeous! i need to find a good excuse to make this one and soon!
Funny you should mention changing your NaBloPoMo tag because after I posted the last comment, I noticed that and almost commented again on it. I love it - especially the fact that the “almost” is carroted (is that even a word?) in there.
Holy. Crap. Must. Make. Now.
*sniff* *sigh*. I guess I’ll just have to suffer through 2008 with an inferior calendar. Maybe next year?! Please oh please?
p.s. thanks for considering it and checking into it. that was very sweet of you.
You are so bloody brilliant! I’m not sure how many times I’ve come back to this entry alone in the past 24 hours to read this recipe - more so hoping that it would get imprinted on my skull.
Besides that, I also dropped by to ask if you had any good books, sites, or personal stories to share when it comes to starting a small food business from the confines of ones home?
I say this because I want to be able to bake more often but have the end result go to someone else’s stomach. This is not to say, that I don’t love all things sweet and scrumptious but I’m sure if I ate all of what I’ve baked alone, I would be leaking in buttercream frosting the next day.
I don’t want to retrieve a loan from the bank to open up a bakery, but I do want to get myself out there and let people know that I am capable of making something quite tasty from my tiny kitchen. :)
Your help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Made this on the weekend and it was a hit all the way around…I happened to have Dorie’s book and had ear marked this cake as a to be made…so make it I did.
Judy
You will be my favorite person in the world if you tell me how to make the Mascarpone cheese smell NICE. I have tried to many tiramisu recipes with mascarpone cheese, and each one seem to end up with a cheesy-goaty yucky smell, that you actually can NOT even eat it. Help if you can! :)
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Deb!!! You took the words right out of my mouth with your last paragraph about loving tiramisu but always being disappointed. I will bookmark this recipe to use whenever a craving hits me so I am no longer at the mercy of the faint-of-coffee-flavor-heart. I don’t have to wait for special occasion to make this though, do I?
ps - Happy B-day to Jocelyn! It’s nice to finally put a face to the many comments. :)
BTW–that cake rocked! Thank you thank you. Sorry for the delay–just back from Mexico. I seemed to have caught some sort of parasite. All food makes me vomit. Sexy I know. But I’ve lost 7 lbs since Saturday! I asked my Doctor if it would be ok to hold off on the anti-biotics for a few more days to take off a few more lbs. I think she wants to have me committed! aha ahah
Anyway, I am back. Let’s get together for Tequila shots soon!
Have I ever mentioned that tiramisu is my very favorite everrrr? I like Veniero’s version to bits, in fact it’s my top tiramisu everrr but only if it’s in the cups, not slices. (It makes a world of difference) Gosh. I think I am in love.
Every year for my birthday my (Italian) husband makes me the *traditional* italian tiramisu. He got the recipe from his mother, and altered it a little. It is very good.
Your recipe looks delicious! It looks like a lot more work though, then his version! hehe I have never had Tiramisu with alcohol in it. I think I would like it with bailys! :O) Hmmm I wonder if you could use Frangelico…?
I would love to show you pics of Franco making me my tiramisu for my last birthday. I will post them on my blog, and you can come take a look if you would like. I will post his recipes too, so you can try my Italian mother in laws recipe! (I have to translate it first!
I love all your delicious things you make! You are so talented!
Ciao!
Now that i’ve made this cake and loved it (I made it for my birthday), I have to ask– do you know of an equally good tiramisu recipe?
Deb - Can you offer some advice on this cake? I made it a couple of days ago and, while individual components tasted AMAZING, the cakes baked in about half the listed time and came out dense and a little hard (to the point that they didn’t really absorb the syrup all the way through). Any idea what went wrong? Could I have overbeat the batter? (Does that sound like a punch line?) I did think it seemed unusually thick for a batter when I poured it into the pans, like it needed more liquid. What do you think? The taste was worthy enough of a second attempt, but I’d ideally like the cakes to be a little more fluffy and absorbent.
PS - I totally ripped off your star design and got questions like, “Did you MAKE this?” So thanks!
Hi Laziza — I did find the cake on the dense side, too, which I supposed was because it was trying to emulate the ladyfinger cookies usually used. Of course, I don’t know if you overbeat the batter or not… mine was soft, but certainly had more structure than other, fluffier white cakes. The amount of liquid was fairly standard for tiramisu, but like you, I like a LOT of liquid and would double it next time. No harm, right? Good luck
I just made this cake for my own birthday yesterday. (hey, I really wanted what _I_ wanted for my birthday) and it was great. If I made it again I would make more of the espresso/brandy syrup because I felt the cake layers did not get soaked enough. The flavor of the icing was perfectly balanced but I also added about 1/3 cup additional powdered sugar to the icing (after taking the filling aliquot out) to make it more spreadable. Pictured here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcuXLZwzbOXcg
I am hoping someone else will read this - because Deb is off on a beach - and give a thought..I want to serve this Monday night for a dinner party but the only time I an make it is Sunday AM. Is that too long to have it in the fridge? Says up to 24 hrs…SillyLN…your cake looks great.
I made this for my boyfriend’s birthday and it was a huge it! I had a kitchen full of vegans fighting over who got to lick the platter….
My coworkers adored this recipe! I think I overwhipped the frosting, though, because it totally did not spread right. :-(
Great recipe. I used Ricotta cheese instead of Mascarpone, which gave the frosting a very light taste and texture (it also has less calories!). I decorated the top with chocolate covered espresso beans (from Starbucks) which added a nice crunch. As well, i didn’t used Brandy, i used Amaretto cream which was amazing. I especially enjoyed this recipe because it wasn’t too sweet, yet it had tonnes of flavour.