Saturday, January 6, 2018

Tiramisu


I made this recently for a friends birthday party.  All right, it was last year, but hey, December was a little busy around here.
The theme for the party was Italian and since I'm just a touch on the crazy side, I said "Ooh, I'll make a Tiramisu".
Never mind that I'd never made one, but I watched Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off Master Class make one, and then I used her recipe with a couple of modifications, and Voila!!!  I done did it.

I actually made two batches and let the sponges sit overnight as Mary suggested.  It's a lot easier to cut them.

Next up I whipped the mascarpone up, but I did cheat a little, I also used cream cheese and make some 'fake' mascarpone.  Have you seen the price on Mascarpone? Yeah, exactly...

And then I used a technique I came up with awhile back when it comes to putting the filling in between cake layers.  I put the frosting or in this case the mascarpone into a ziploc bag, cut a corner off and then 'pipe' it in strips.  I find it a lot easier to spread the frosting or filling with this method, and it doesn't tear up the cake.


I grated the chocolate directly onto the mascarpone filling


it took a little effort but I got a nice layer on there.  I think next time I'll grate the chocolate first and have it ready to go.



After I dusted the top with cocoa powder I did trim the sides a little, but I think I need to practice a little more.  It wasn't as neat as I would have liked. 

I also  had some fun with making letters out of chocolate.  I learned that you can't make them too thin, because they break when you remove them from the parchment paper.  Lesson learned.  The HB stood for Happy Birthday and the S stood for Shelby, who was the birthday boy.  But they didn't stand up real well on the cake so I laid them down. They needed to be 'beefed' up more.

As you can see here.  But they did make an interesting pattern.
Did I mention that the cake was eaten, I think the birthday boy did get to taste some of it.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Tiramisu Cake

prep time: 30 MINScook time: 30 MINStotal time: 60 mins
This rich and yet flavorful cake is a showstopper when it comes to serving it for a fancy dinner or party. It does take a little effort but is well worth it.

ingredients:

Sponge
  • 4 eggs
    100 gram sugar
    100 gram self rising flour
Filling
  • 500 gram Mascarpone
    16 oz. Full fat cream cheese
    6 tablespoons confectioner sugar
    600 ml. Heavy cream
    150 gram grated chocolate
Wash
  • 300 ml water
    1 1/2 teaspoon coffee extract
    200 ml brandy
Topping
  • 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
    3-4 oz. Dark Chocolate

instructions:

Sponge
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees ( or 160C convection).
    Prepare a jelly roll pan (15x10), by greasing the bottom and laying a sheet of parchment paper on top and greasing that as well.  I use my Baker's Touch spray for this.   
    Whisk the 4 eggs and sugar together for about 5 minutes, until foamy, light colored  and almost doubled in size. It should leave a trail on top when the whisk is lifted.   Sift the self rising flour over it and cut in lightly, using a spatula or large spoon.  Pour into greased and parchment covered pan, and tilt it a little so that it is even, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the sponge has risen, is lightly browned springy to the touch. 
    Take out of oven, let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes or so  and flip out sponge onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Wash
  1. For the filling, mix the water, coffee extract and brandy together, set aside.   
Filling
  1. Beat the Mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and cream together until smooth.   You will get a creamy spread able frosting.   Spoon it into a ziploc bag or a frosting bag for the next step. 
Assembly
  1. Sprinkle one quarter of the coffee/brandy wash over one quarter of the sponge.  I used a pastry brush to generously coat the sponge.   Then using the bag with the mascarpone filling, pipe one quarter of the filling in strips 1/2 an inch apart on the sponge.  Using an offset spatula, spread the filling in an equal layer.  Take one third of the grated chocolate and sprinkle evenly over the Mascarpone.  Place the second sponge on top, and brush with some more of the coffee brandy wash.  Pipe another third of the Mascarpone on top, and top that with a layer of the grated chocolate.  Continue with the next layer, just like the others.  Finish off with a thin layer of Mascarpone on top.  This seals in any crumbs.  Take the remainder of the Mascarpone and spread evenly over the top.  At this point I placed the cake in the fridge for an hour, to let it set up.  I then took the cake out and trimmed the uneven parts around the cake. (the trimmings made a great accompaniment to my afternoon coffee)
    Just before serving I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa in an even manner over the top using a small sieve. And added the chocolate fancies I'd made earlier.

    Chocolate fancies.
    While the cake was cooling I made some decoration using some melted chocolate.
    Melt half the chocolate in a small bowl over simmering water, being careful not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.   Take it off the heat and stir in the remainder of the chopped chocolate.   This is called tempering the chocolate.  Stir it gently until the chocolate cools down to about 125 degrees.  This will ensure it is cool enough  to pipe.
    While the chocolate is cooling, draw a few designs on some parchment paper, simple ones like hearts or letters.  Flip the parchment paper over and after the chocolate is cool and thick enough to pipe, make a small parchment piping bag  and spoon the chocolate into the bag and snip off the end and pipe the chocolate onto the designs.  Leave to set until required. 
    Decorate the finished cake with the decorative chocolate shapes.
Created using The Recipes Generator

My cookbook Hygge - Danish Food and Recipes would be a great gift for any foodies in your life. Available as a Kindle e book or in paperback. Autographed copies are also available at the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, Iowa or on their website.
All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2018, with all rights reserved thereof.
Sidsel Munkholm - Author
Sidsel Munkholm - Author

Sid loves to cook, feed people and have fun in the kitchen. She shares her successes and the involuntary offerings she sometimes gives the kitchen goddess as well. And she's still looking for the mythical fairy to help her clean the kitchen after a marathon cooking session. Currently working on a cookbook showcasing the recipes from her Danish heritage.

4 comments:

  1. Tiramasu is really one of my favorites and your cake looks fantastic!! Thanks so much for sharing your post with us at Full Plate Thursday this week. Hope you have a great day and come back soon!
    Miz Helen

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a wonderful recipe for tiramisu! The only one I've tried uses lady fingers and raw eggs, and it always makes me nervous, even though I use pasteurized eggs. I'm saving this one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It tasted wonderful and I got rave reviews from everyone. And no leftovers either. The only tricky part was the cake, and I made while we had really high humidity and it was a tad hard to split, but the filling covered up all my mistakes. Try this, I think you'll like it, and I bet with your skills it will look a lot better than mine did.

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