Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of today, I bring you the classic Mexican, er yeah, Italian dessert–Tiramisù. Traditionally, tiramisù is made with lady fingers dipped in espresso and layered with a whipped mixture of mascarpone, egg yolks, and sugar.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection is a Tiramisù Cake. Instead of lady fingers, Dorie Greenspan‘s version uses a layer cake approach. Tiramisù means “pick me up” in Italian and I definitely needed a yummy jolt this week. Work has been crazy. I’ve been working almost every day and some days I’ve been working 12 hours. I’ve had to come in early, 7 am (oh my–I normally start work at 9 am). Things seem to have calmed down and I had my first day off in 2 weeks on Sunday.
Let’s just say, I’ve been drinking lots and lots of coffee this week. And I’ve just discovered the joy that is coffee with a shot of espresso. That’s my new morning drink. I don’t know what took me so long to discover it.
Anyways, back to the cake. The cake layers are soaked with espresso syrup, then layered with a mascarpone-whipped cream filling. The filling is topped with chopped chocolate–I used Green & Black’s Espresso Chocolate Bar (Up the espresso flavor! I love coffee and all it’s forms)–and then the second espresso soaked layer is placed on top of the filling.
The rest of the mascarpone-whipped cream filling is mixed with left over espresso extract and spread over the cake. I topped the cake with chocolate covered coffee beans (yay! more coffee flavor) and sprinkled it with Essential Cane’s Espresso Sugar (you get the theme?).
I’m so glad I made the full cake because this is now my #1 TWD recipe (sorry, Coconut Butter Thins you had your moment).
Oh, and because you must know me by now–I made Tiramisù Ice Cream. The recipe comes from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. It uses mascarpone, half & half, Kahlúa, rum, and a mocha ripple. It’s very boozy, but I like things like that. Very, very delicious. Almost dangerously delicious. You can find the recipe HERE.
Thank you to Megan of My Baking Adventures who chose this wonderfully delicious dessert as we bake our way through Baking…From My Home to Yours. For the recipe, visit her blog (It’s one of my favorites!).
Pink Stripes 