Tiramisu Cake

Not with traditional flavors: Scotch replaces the marsala, and cake is used in place of lady fingers. But delicious nonetheless!
Tiramisu Cake 

The tiramisu cake was a huge success!

My son requested this for his birthday, specifying the cake be ‘very buttery’…he wanted cake in place of the lady fingers traditionally used in tiramisu.

I made the All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake from The Cake Bible* as the base, and my soaking liquid was espresso mixed with sugar and scotch (another change requested to replace the Marsala). For the filling I used a recipe I have made many times for a traditional tiramisu. It had eggs, mascarpone cheese, sugar and scotch (again, a change from the Marsala); however, it was not firm enough, and I was afraid the cake would slide apart if used ‘as is’.

It was quite the dilemma.

I decided I needed to wrap the cake with a sheet of chocolate to make sure it stayed together. So in a desperate late-night attempt to finish the cake before my son returned from college, I quickly melted some dark chocolate and spread it on my liner. I wrapped the inside of the cake pan (chocolate side facing in so I could peel the liner away later), then proceeded to layer in the cake components: 1st soaked cake layer, then some of the mascarpone filling, followed by a sprinkling of dark chocolate shavings; 2nd cake layer, more filling, more chocolate shavings.

At that point it went into the fridge where it sat overnight to set up and let the flavors come together. The next morning I removed the cake from the pan and unwrapped the form, revealing an ever-so-thin sheet of chocolate surrounding the cake and holding it all together.

The final result was delicious…I was worried that I should have used a more firm cake base to stand up to the soaking, but the taste and texture really worked. My son said it was his favorite of all the cakes I had made.

*the link to the recipe for the All-Occasion Downy Yellow Cake is http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/All-Occasion-Downy-Yellow-Butter-Cake-102289

 

Returning to the Nest (and all that Jazz)!

What an exciting weekend!!! My husband will shortly begin the very long drive back home, our eldest in tow after finishing his 2nd year of college. They should be here on Mother’s Day, a beautiful gift to be sure! I have already heard a few of the ‘adventure’ stories from this year’s move-out, and I expect to hear many more upon their arrival…

My son’s birthday was last Sunday, and since we knew he’d be coming home soon we held off the festivities until this weekend. He has selected as his cake of choice: a tiramisu cake…no lady fingers…he wants cake in their place. And scotch…apparently he has acquired a taste for scotch this semester. One of his electives was a course on jazz. He and his friends decided that scotch paired well with jazz and pooled their resources for a nice bottle of scotch (‘Glenfiddich 12’ to be exact). And it appears he did indeed acquire that taste for scotch after all. Guess he takes a little after his mom…

Back to the cake. I will be making a tiramisu cake and will be replacing the typical Marsala (some use rum or Kahlua) with scotch. So not your average Italian tiramisu to be sure, but I know it will be tasty! I’ve got the mascarpone ready to be whipped into a creamy filling. The coffee is on stand-by, ready for the addition of a bit of scotch – just a tad, mind you – for soaking the cake layers, and there are large chunks of Callebut dark chocolate ready to be melted down and molded into place. Oh, did I mention the Irish Coffee he would like served with the cake? My son, the gourmet…Again, like mother, like son…

Can’t wait until both get home…I will breathe a sigh of relief once they pass through that door safe and sound on Sunday. And then it will be time for the stories (and all that jazz…)!!!