2.24.16
Guys, I love sleep. I’ve been working and rehearsing, and BAKING! Yes BAKING! a lot the past few weeks. But while I’m usually down to work on this into the wee hours of the night, my schedule hasn’t allowed me this privilege lately unless I want to go mad. I’ve been able to keep up almost everything in my life, but to get enough sleep to keep functioning like a human being, editing and writing these posts have had to be the sacrifice. I’ve made so many things recently and I can’t wait to share them all. So I’m kicking off what I hope to be a string of more consistent posts with these Tiramisu Cakes! One of the handful of projects I made on my grown-up snow day a few weeks ago when an epic blizzard hit NYC. I was in the midst of my Italian inspiration too.
I initially wanted these to be lava cakes with ooey gooey marscapone coming out of the center when you cut into it. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I figured I’d give it a shot. When I took a bite, there was no marscapone oozing out because it had baked into the cake, making it rich and super soft in the middle. It wasn’t the dessert I had planned to make, but I was happy with what ended up coming out.
The thing that makes my recipes printable isn’t working. So here’s all the steps and things, I’ll fix it later…maybe. I’m not going to waste my whole morning trying to get it to work, and/or replacing it.
Grown-ups don’t get enough snow days, we should have the chance now and then to have a whole day to stay inside, snuggle on the couch and watch movies, or bake all day long and then make tomato soup and grilled cheese. These cakes were a little labor intensive, but would impress any friend you have over, and if you have a whole day to yourself, why not make something a little more complicated?? I’m happy for spring to be headed our way, but would take a full day off while the snow falls outside any time.
Mini Tiramisu Cakes
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 3 egg yolks
- 6 Tbsp sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 8oz marscapone
For the Cakes
- 4 eggs
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Soak
- 1/2 cup coffee, chilled
- 1/4 cup coffee liquor (I used Kahluha)
For the Topping
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- splash of vanilla extract (if desired)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
Instructions
For the Filling
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together yolks, sugar, and milk
- Bring to a boil, whisk for one more minute, then remove from heat and allow to cool for ten minutes before covering and chilling to fully cool
- Chill for about 1 hour, then whisk in marscapone until smooth
- Spoon mixture into an empty ice cube tray and freeze over night (or for a few hours until it’s relatively solid)
For the Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour 8-10 ramekins extremely well (if you don’t have enough ramekins, just bake in two batches)
- Bring about 1 inch of water in a large pot to a simmer
- Whisk together eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand up mixer over simmering water and continue to whisk until egg mixture reaches about 115 degrees
- Remove the bowl from the simmering pot and using the whisk attachment on a stand up mixer, whip about 5-7 minutes until the ‘ribbon stage’ is reached. *This means when you dunk the whisk into the mixture and bring it out, the batter that falls into the bowl leaves a ‘ribbon’ on the surface of the batter for about 3 seconds before disappearing.*
- While the batter is being whipped, melt butter with milk in a heat proof bowl in the microwave, until just below a boil, stir in vanilla extract
- Also while eggs whip, sift together your flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and fold into batter once ‘ribbon stage’ is reached
- Take out about 2 cups of the cake batter into a separate medium bowl, and with a hand whisk add the hot milk-butter to that. Whisk vigorously
- Add batter and milk combo, or ‘liason,’ back into the remaining batter in the mixer bowl, whisk together to combine
- Transfer batter to large measuring cup with a spout for easy pouring. Pour batter about half way into the ramekins
- Take marscapone from freezer and remove frozen marscapone blocks with a spoon, cut in half and place each in the center of the batter
- Pour more batter over the marscapone, until ramekins are about 3/4 full
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, they may still jiggle in the center, but should begin to brown around the edge slightly
- Allow to cool about 5-10 minutes, carefully turn ramekins over onto serving plate for cake to drop out
For the Soak
- Combine coffee and coffee liquor in a small bowl
- Using a pastry brush, liberally brush the mixture over top of all the cakes, allow it to soak in, don’t be shy or the flavor won’t come through!
For the Topping
- While the cakes bake, place bowl for stand up mixer in freezer, along with the whisk attachment
- Once cakes are removed from ramekin and ready to be served whip heavy cream for about 2 minutes on medium, then slowly stream in sugar
- Add in vanilla if you’d like and allow cream to double in size
- Scoop a heaping spoonful on top of every cake
- Sift cocoa powder on top to garnish
Cake adapted from Gretchen’s Bakery
