Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tiramisu Cake -- Tuesdays with Dorie


A big thank you to my wonderful blogging buddy Megan at My Baking Adventures, who picked Tiramisu Cake, on pages 266-268 of Dorie's book Baking From My Home To Yours, as our first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe of May. You can visit Megan's site for the recipe if you would like to try this delicious cake and don't have Dorie's book.


Even though I'm not a big coffee drinker I love tiramisu, but haven't had it in ages, so this was a fun pick to rekindle a little coffee love. Speaking of love, in the recipe preface in the book, Dorie mentions the popularity of Tiramisu in the 1990s and the movie Sleepless in Seattle, which just happens to be my favorite movie, I absolutely adore the movie and the soundtrack. I am not the kind of person to watch a movie more than once, but Sleepless in Seattle gets me every time. Sigh.


I substituted some instant French vanilla nut coffee instead of the instant espresso powder, couldn't find it anywhere locally. Finding the mascarpone was quite a chore, after many phone calls to grocers, where either a. they had no idea who or what mascarpone cheese was, or b. they were out of stock, or c. I was rudely asked if I meant mass-cup-own cheese because they had that but not mascarpone, I finally located a store with mascarpone in stock and sent my husband for an 8 ounce tub. Now I've had mascarpone quite a few times, but it's not something I buy that often, it's usually an impulse buy because I see it in the 'cheese island' and think 'oh, haven't had that in a while, I'll figure out something to do with it' and toss it in my cart. I don't think I've ever even looked at the cost of it before, I thought it would be 3-4 dollars for an 8 ounce tub, well, when my husband called from the store, saying he finally found it and how much did I want, I asked him to get two tubs, one for this recipe, and one for me to get creative with, not realizing that this little grocery charged $8.00 for an 8 ounce tub, that's $1 an ounce! Sheesh! And it wasn't even imported from Italy or anything. Oh-well.



I loved the Kamora Coffee Liquor that I bought specifically for this recipe. I'm not an alcohol fan, never have been -- just don't really like the taste, but this Kamora stuff with a little milk is quite delicious.



This cake baked up in less than the time specified in the recipe, I'd say about 17 minutes. I recently replaced my 8 and 9 inch round cake pans, so got to use my new Chicago Metallic 9 inch pans, at first I was a little nervous because the recipe calls for a 9 by 2 inch pan and I only have 9 by 1 1/2 inch -- but they did the trick with no overflow, thank goodness!

Let me apologize for the frosting and decoration job, I know my cake looks pretty sloppy! Even though I had very stiff peaks in my cream, after I added it to the coffee syrup it became quite soft (even after refrigeration) was not that easy to decorate with. I did some cinnamon heart stencils on top, and a few chocolate chips for good measure. I did not add the chocolate to the middle of the cake, just wasn't feeling the chocolate vibe tonight. Results? Although my cake didn't turn out that easy on the eyes, it was very delicious, and thoroughly enjoyed :) This is probably my new favorite TWD cake -- yum!

21 comments:

Megan said...

$8 for cheese? Holy cannoli that's expensive! I guess it made the cake extra delicious, right? :)

I'm glad you all liked it - and I love the heart stencils on top, I noticed those right away!

Unknown said...

That is some seriously expensive mascarpone!! You decorated your cake beautifully. The more cakes I see this week, the worse I'm feeling about my own decorating abilities :)

Leslie said...

This looks delicious! I love Vermont Butter & Cheese, but $8 is a lot to pay for 8 ounces of milk in one form or another. My layers were pretty squat but the flavor was great.

Cristine said...

Your cake looks beautiful! Love the hearts!

Marthe said...

Love the way you decorated the cake with the hearts.... The cheese is way less expensive here in The Netherlands 8 ounces cost about $2,95....

Hindy said...

I paid $7 for my cheese but it was worth it. Your cake looks delicious!

NKP said...

Just be happy in the thought that whatever it cost there - it'll be more here!
The cake looks wonderful, I think it is very pretty. And I am with you on the coffee liqueur, very tasty.

Amanda said...

I love the decorations you did on the top, why are you apologizing for them? :) I thought this recipe was out of this world

Debbie said...

I've seen several posts for this cake and it just sounds wonderful. Your cake looks so pretty and delicious!

Flourchild said...

Man that mascarpone is pricey. Im glad you finally found it. Your cake looks so good and I heart the heart designs. You are so good about adding that sweet looking extra touch. Way to go girl!

Michele said...

Your cake is gorgeous! Love the decorations!

Pamela said...

Love Sleepless in Seattle! The cake looks beautiful. And I am really shocked that the marscarpone was so pricey!! Glad you enjoyed the cake, though.

Teanna DiMicco said...

The french vanilla nut coffee sounds so good! And the cake looks delicious! I love the hearts!

chocolatechic said...

Hey! You have the same kind of liquor that I do.

Beautiful cake.

Anonymous said...

I love the way you decorated the cake. It looks very delicious. I loved it a lot.

Danielle said...

your cake looks gorgeous. Great job!

Anonymous said...

your cake looks great, i think you did a good decorating job. :)

Di said...

Your cake looks lovely--I like the stencils. I'm working on replacing some of my older pans, too. I've got new 8-inch pans, but I still need new 9-inch ones. In weeks like this, I'm reminded how lucky I am to have several great sources for ingredients like the mascarpone.

Kayte said...

I think all that oozy goodness looks just great. It is so much fun each week to hear what different bakers sub for this or that...gives me such great ideas! Thanks...that French Vanilla thing sounds wonderful! Your cake is lovely.
Kayte
www.grandmaskitchentable.typepad.com

TeaLady said...

I knew there was a reason I didn't make this cake. $8!! Unbelievable.

But it looks like the cake is delicious. And worth the extra $$$.

Yummy!!!

Anonymous said...

Looks delish! I've never bought marscapone simply because it was so cost-prohibitive. I prefer to just buy my tiramisu anyway.

~Cat

PS: LOVE Sleepless- the best movie!

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