Heavenly Egg-less Tiramisu

Ah yes, Tiramisu, a wonderful cake that I always enjoy and yet has this "fear" of attempting it myself. Somehow, it seems complicated with all that cheese layering and sponge fingers plus alcohol. Furthermore, with 2 young kids at home, raw eggs, coffee and alcohol just doesn't seem appropriate. Not to mention I ain't a fan of sponge fingers. :P However, when I saw Sonia's post a while back which redirected me to the recipe posted in RasaMalaysia, my perceptive of the cake changed.

My Tiramisu cake recipe is adapted from Terri of Hunger Hunger who guest posted her recipe in RasaMalaysia. As I read through the recipe, I grew a little more confident that I can make this! And I'm so glad I did! (^o^) The fact that it doesn't use raw eggs was already good enough for me, heehee. Thanks Terri!

Here is the recipe, slightly modified:

Ingredients for Egg-less Tiramisu (makes an 6"x7" rectangle):

2 cups (500 gm) mascarpone cheese
1 1/4 cup heavy cream (1/2 cup + 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup (about 100 gm) semi-sweet dark chocolate
1/3 cup strong espresso (I used Nescafe instead)
3 Tbsp coffee liqueur such as Tia Maria or Kahlua
4 slices of 6" by 7" of sponge cake (you can use similar or close to sizes)
8 tbsp confectioner's sugar (sifted) (5 tbsp + 3 tbsp)
Garnish: chocolate shavings

• Mix the coffee/espresso with the coffee liqueur; chill.
• Melt the chocolate with 1/2 cup cream over a double boiler; cool.
• Whip the remaining 3/4 cup of heavy cream and 3 tbsp of confectioner's sugar till stiff peaks.
• Whip the mascarpone and the 5 tbsp confectioner's sugar together till creamy, about 1 minute.
• Fold the whipped cream gently into the mascarpone cheese. Chill mixture in fridge for at least an hour before use.
• Lay a slice of the sponge cake on a serving plate, spoon about 1/4 of the espresso mixture over the fingers to soak. Spread 1/4 of the chocolate ganache over the cake and then spread 1/4 of the mascarpone mixture over. Repeat and end with a layer of mascarpone.
• Garnish with choc shavings. Chill overnight or at least 8 hours.

*For sponge cake recipe, please refer to here but omit the extra flavoring to get plain vanilla.

Oh this cake is indeed heavenly~! \(^o^)/ The sponge cake was all soaked with the coffee mixture and the mascarpone cheese was really nice and light, making every bite melt in your mouth ever so easily. The chocolate ganache went really well with the coffee scent, a combination that anyone would easily fall in love with. And I was glad I went with the chocolate shavings instead of the cocoa powder as the garnish since I don't really fancy the chalky and bitter taste of the cocoa powder itself. Ehhh...but I'm so bad with my chocolate shavings, instead of nice curls, it looks more like broken wood chips. (-_-")

It's funny, but just as I was thinking about posting my tiramisu cake, I saw Wendy's post this afternoon. I was thinking like "Wow, what a coincidence! We baked the same cake at the same time!" But after reading her post, I realized that hers was done a year back and only got to post it now, heehee. Well, I guess the more the merrier right? So many varieties and all so good...yum! Hope you all will join in the tiramisu "craze" too! Happy baking all!

I am going to submit this post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #18 Layers of Love (April 2012) hosted by Sweet Samsations

Have a great week ahead all