New Cake: Garden Roses Tiramisu Cake

Need a little "Pick me up"?

Tiramisu [ /tɪrəmɪˈsu:/ ]

- an Italian dessert consisting of layers of sponge cake soaked in coffee and brandy or liqueur with powdered chocolate and mascarpone cheese.

- an Italian phrase that means "lift me up"

I am starting to think that there are several traits that are shared universally among men. These are selective listening, selective remembering and being last minute. (I have once convinced my husband to go for a hearing test as I kept telling him he doesn't hear me lol).

And on special occasions, these symptoms flare up even more aggressively.

Last Saturday, I received a message from a good friend's husband asking if I could make a birthday cake for his lovely wife for Tuesday. He said he had waited till last minute as usual and wondered if I could make them a Tiramisu flavoured cake.

I smiled as I know that my husband goes through the exact same thing EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. (Honey, if you are reading this, I love you very much and you are the best :P !!!!!)

How can I say no to my friend's sweet husband who has the best intentions albeit being a bit last minute? So I said, "No worries :) I will make it happen.".

I once made a tiramisu cake for my husband, then boyfriend, years ago. I still remember the cake decoration, which was literally "dust the entire cake liberally with cacao powder to cover all uneven frosting and occasional holes".

Since then I improved (I mean, its been 7 years after all).

A classic tiramisu is traditionally a creamy dessert of espresso-soaked ladyfingers surrounded by lightly sweetened whipped cream and a rich mascarpone.

It is usually quite soft and is served in a glass dish.

Not quite elegant enough for a special occasion like birthday I thought.

So I went ahead to research how I could take the traditional dessert and spin it into a tall layer cake.

In the end, this is what I came up with.

A layer cake composed of 4 thin layers of Genoise made with the same ingredients as the Italian Lady Fingers traditionally used in a Tiramisu.

I lightly brushed the cake layers with an espresso and masala wine syrup to give it that classic Tiramisu flavour we all love. However, I only used half of the recipe as I do not like cakes that are TOO wet and mushy. I want the sponges to still feel like cake.

Then, I filled the layers with a Mascarpone Sabayon, lighted with whipped cream, so that the cake is kept light and not too sweet.

As a finishing touch, I generously dusted cacao powder on top of the cake and decorated it with white roses made out of sugar gum paste.

There was a little side story with this cake...

On the day of delivery, I opened the fridge to check the cake and saw that the flower stems started melting due to the humidity of the cake itself. (Tiramisu is a very wet cake)

I stood in front of the fridge staring at the "situation" calmly for 5 minutes.

After that, I closed the fridge door and reopened it for three times (I was probably in disbelief and trying to absorb what just happened).

Then, I took a deep breath and proceeded to scream, "O....M.....F.....G!!!!!!!!!"

Luckily I was able to save the cake by re-frosting the cake and re-do the flower stems in time for delivery.

I swear I am forever scarred from this experience. I swear.

Thankfully my client was very happy with the final cake and this is their feedback...

"Thank you so much for making my beautiful cake! It is so delicious, I think I could eat half of it in one sitting it's so light! It tastes so good, it's like half cake and half pudding! Matt and I both said we could have a massive slice in one sitting. I just want to grab a fork now and stick it in straight from the fridge!"