Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Tiramisu cake


My dad has a birthday last month, so I wanted to bake him a cake. He's mad about coffee and cricket, and since they haven't invented a cricket cake yet, it had to be this one.

The problems I had were silly, but problems nonetheless. I couldn't find mascarpone anywhere and simply did not have the time to bake it. I also had no one to eat the cake since I was leaving town the very day of his birthday, Amma was in the US, and neither he not my grandma should be eating that much cake. I decided to use a tiny tin, and I have one-third the recipe. Not a bad result at all! Remember to treble it and bake for 2 9inch cakes, or just mosey on over to Deb's and use the original recipe.



For the cake:
1 egg
2/3 C flour
2/3 t baking powder
3.5 T butter
1/2 t vanilla
1/4C buttermilk

For the soaking syrup:
1/4 C filter coffee decoction
2 T brandy (liqueur of choice)
2 T sugar

For the cream/cream cheese layer:
75g mascarpone
1/6 C fine sugar (confectioners or whatever you have that works)
1/2 T booze
1/3 C cream
(I ended up using whipped cream flavoured with brandy because of that mascarpone mixup.)

To make the cake:
Sift together flour and baking powder. Beat the butter till soft and creamy. Add sugar and beat till fluffy. Add the egg, and beat till combined. Add the vanilla and beat till combines. Add the dry ingredients and then the buttermilk. (If you're making a big version then add 1/3rd of the dry and 1/3rd of the buttermilk at a time.) Bake 30minutes at 175C.

To make the syrup:
Heat the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Add in the coffee and let it cool a bit, after which add the booze. Now cut the cake in two and brush the syrup on till its well soaked. Mine didn't soak too well as you can see in the cross sections.

Whip the cream well with the sugar, and beat the mascarpone until smooth and gently fold the two together with the booze. Use to fill and frost. Could use to fill and frost with a coffee and booze drenched chocolate ganache... Top with a dusting of cocoa powder. Do this just before serving or it will all go dark.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ameya,
Ihave used hung curd and fresh cream mix in place of mascarpone cheese.result is as good .
well, next time when there is a big cake, remember Sudha aunty is next door!

Sue said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sue said...

Hey, so did you just carry on without the mascarpone? Or did you sub something a la Sudha Aunty (hello Sudha Aunty)?

As you can see, I'm feeling in the mood for baking once more.

Sue said...

Cool, thanks. Hoping you post something else soon. :)

MinCat said...

ayyy hint taken. =) theyre there in drafts just hafta get the photos done!

Sue said...

Really? Well, get to work, then. *in her best schoolmarm manner*