Loquat Tiramisu Cake

I love it when friends gift me produce from their gardens.  My eyes lit up when a friend told me to come pick some Loquats, as their tree had a major bumper crop this year, but then she brought me a bag of fresh picked Loquats.
I sat and looked at them, and my mind immediately flew to making some preserves.  And then... the lightbulb went on and I knew I could use them in a cake.

This was my week to make a cake for the Legion Cake Raffle.  I bake a cake for them every other week, and it's raffled off, with the proceeds going into the community for various causes.   My little way of giving back, and best of all, I get to bake a cake.

I toyed with adding the preserves directly into the cake batter, but honestly, I'm not crazy about the taste or texture adding fruit preserves to cake batter.
Then I got another 'AHA' moment after tasting the fresh preserves I'd made, and I knew what I was going to do with them.

I'll share how I made the preserves in another post.
I had Mascarpone cheese in the fridge, as well as some cream cheese and I thought that maybe the creaminess of the cheese would contrast nicely with the preserves.
And I was totally and completely on point with that. 
I did taste test, cause ummm, just cause I thought it would taste good, didn't mean it would. 

My mouth went "ERMAGARD!!!!!" give me more,  and I had to stop the taste testing, cause I wanted to leave some of each for the cake.
TMI?
Here's the process, with the full recipe at the bottom.

The bottom layer with the holes poked into.

Brushed with Loquat Syrup

The Loquat preserves with the Mascarpone piped into a circle on top.
 

Second Layer with a light layer (almost naked cake) of Mascarpone on the sides and Loquat Preserves on top.

And this is how it looked after being cut.  This was so totally delicious. 

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from many recipes)

prep time: 30 Mcook time: 30 Mtotal time: 60 M

ingredients:

Sponge

• 6 eggs
• 150 gram sugar
• 150 gram self rising flour

Filling and topping

• 256 gram Mascarpone
• 8 oz. Full fat cream cheese
• 6 tablespoons confectioner sugar
• 3 tablespoon. Heavy cream
• 3/4-1 cup Loquat Preserves

Wash

• 1/2 cup Loquat Syrup  (from the loquat preserves, or use a simple syrup with lemon or orange extract)

instructions:

Sponge

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees ( or 160C convection).
2. Prepare 2 9" round pans , by greasing the bottom and laying a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom and greasing that as well. I use my Baker's Touch spray for this.
3. Whisk the 6 eggs and sugar together for about 5-7 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 pans, 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 and springy to the touch.
4. Take out of oven, let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes or so and flip out sponges onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Remove the parchment paper.

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.
2. Place a cake round onto the serving plate when the cake is cooled. Poke holes into the surface of the cake with the smaller end of a chopstick. Brush with loquat syrup.
3. Spread 1/2-3/4 cup of the Loquat preserves evenly over the cake. 
4. Then using the bag with the mascarpone filling, pipe one quarter of the filling in strips 1/2 an inch apart on the sponge on top of the preserves.  Place the second sponge on top, and brush with some more of the loquat syrup if desired. Pipe another third of the Mascarpone on top,  Spread evenly.  Using the final third of the mascarpone filling, spread a thin layer on the outside of the cake.   You can then decorate the top with some more of the Loquat preserves if desired.   

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