Tiramisu Cake

I am a huge tiramisu fan, and so is my husband. So much, that he requests it for his birthday every year. This cake is made with a delicious homemade sponge cake that is soaked with strong sweetened coffee, filled (and frosted) with a mascarpone cream that melts in your mouth, and dusted with unsweetened cocoa powder….Yummmm!!!

Let’s get started by making the sponge cakes. I like to make 2-9 inch cakes that I cut in half giving you four layers.

Ingredients for Sponge Cake:

6 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
1 cup all-purpose flour (130 grams)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
*2 cups strong black coffee (I sweetened mine with 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. You can omit the sugar if you want, it’s just a preference)
1/4 cup Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa (28 grams) for dusting on cake

*The coffee isn’t in the cake recipe. It is used for soaking the layers, and 3 tablespoons is in the mascarpone cream filling.

Instructions for Sponge Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 – 9″ pans with baking spray and line bottoms with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with whisk attachment, beat 6 large eggs for 1 minute on high speed. Gradually add 1 cup of sugar (while the mixer is running), and continue beating on high for 8 minutes. The batter will almost triple in size and will be very thick and fluffy.
Whisk together 1 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. Sift this mixture into egg mixture one third at a time. Fold with a spatula after each addition just until incorporated. Be sure to scrape spatula from the bottom to catch any pockets of flour. Stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix or it will deflate the batter.
Divide evenly between prepared cake pans. It helps if you have a kitchen scale to weigh the pans. Bake cakes at 350˚F for 25-28 minutes or until top is golden brown. Let cakes rest in pan for 10 minutes then remove from pan and transfer to a cooling rack. Immediately remove parchment paper. Cool cakes to room temperature then slice layers equally in half with a serrated knife.

Ingredients for Mascarpone Cream Filling:

4 cups BelGioioso mascarpone cheese (906 grams)
2 cups confectioners’ sugar (240 grams)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 tablespoons sweetened coffee
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (360 grams)

Instructions for Mascarpone Cream Filling:

Place mascarpone in a large mixing bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. It will be so smooth and creamy.

Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and sweetened coffee in the bowl with the mascarpone cheese. Beat on medium/high for a minute. Set aside.

Mix heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Add to the mascarpone mixture and mix until fully incorporated and very smooth!

Set filling aside while you slice cake layers and soak them with the sweetened coffee mixture.

Place about a cup and a half of the cream filling on the coffee soaked layer and spread evenly.

Continue filling, soaking, and layering the cakes. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining filling (frosting).

The top can be decorated any way you would like. I put whipped cream in a bag with a large tip with a 1/2″ circle, then I dusted it with unsweetened cocoa.

I cut pieces of parchment paper and placed it around the bottom of the cake to catch most of the cocoa. This was just a preference for me, but it isn’t necessary. I think one of the charms of a tiramisu cake is how rustic it is :).