Tiramisu

Cake? Coffee? Why not both?

Tirimisu is a dessert that I fell in love with while working in a trattoria in the Hudson Valley. The owner would make a sheet tray for the crew to keep our spirits up during busy hot days slinging foccacia out a 500 degree oven. The espresso soaked cake helps to keep you going and amarreto take the edge off during a long day.

Some of the best tiramisu is made with lady fingers soaked in espresso, but they are legit a pain to make and we’re trying to have some fun here. In this recipe we simplified the process by making sponge cake.

Ingredients

  • Sponge Cake
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 cup soy milk with 1 tsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 2 tbsp melted bulter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • Marscarpone
  • 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • (2) 13 oz cans of coconut cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • Boozy Caffine Bath
  • 1 cups espresso
  • 2 oz disaronno (almond liqueur)
  • Garnish
  • 1 lemon zested
  • 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tbsp ground espresso beans

INSTRUCTIONS

1.Set your oven to 350°F. In a medium to large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the sponge cake and whisk them together. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and lemon zest.

2.Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until fully combined. Then, evenly pour the mixture into two greased 9 by 12 square cake pans. If you only have one, you can bake the cake in one tray but you have to slice the cake into layers later.

3.Bake for 12 to 15 mintures. If a fork or toothpick can be inserted into the cake and comes out clean, then you know its read to come out. Be sure to allow the cake to completely cool before assembling

4.While our cake is cooling, we can make our mascarpone. Begin by using a hand mixer to cream together your plant based cream cheese of choice with sugar until light and airy.

5.Add the coconut cream and vanilla, mix for another minute.

6.After our mascarpone is made and our cake is cool, we can start to assemble the tiramisu using one of the cake pan from early. Pour half of the boozy caffine mixture into the bottom of the cake pan. Add the first sheet of cake on top of the mixture and spread half of the mascarpone cheese over it with a rubber spatula. This next part is a little tricky. If the top layer of cake gets to wet, it will be more difficult to spread the last bit of marscapone over the top. I would quickly dip the second cake sheet using a shallow baking tray with the rest of our caffine mixture and slide it on top the other layers. This will allow our cake to soak from the bottom up, but give you a dry cancase to spread the mascarpone on.

7.Now we basically have the tiramisu put together, but there are some optional steps to take to make it special. If you want to eat it right now with a spoon, I’m not going to stop you from living your best life. If you have guests or want to cut this bad boy into servings, allow it to set in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight if you can. Then right before serving, dust this sucker with a mix of the cocoa-espresso powder and a sprinkle of lemon zest.

Recipe by
Cody Lentini - Published on 5/18/2022, 10:38:13 PM