Buongiorno! Megan of My Baking Adventures leads us to Italy, the land of Tiramisu with Dorie’s Tiramisu Cake. In an attempt to be faithful to the recipe, I’ve been all over town trying to find mascarpone cheese. My last ditch effort was at a natural food store on Tuesday, but no luck. I know some people have been able to find it at Publix, Walmart (gah!) even, but I did not. Thankfully I came across a great website that gives (somewhat cryptic at times) substitutions for mascarpone cheese, as well as others.
The site is aptly named Cook’s Thesarus and really is a gold mine for those of you, like me, who have trouble find those (sometimes not so) difficult to find ingredients. The entry that was particularly helpful in my current conundrum was that for Fresh Cheese. You’ll find the substitutions for mascarpone cheese a little more than halfway down the page. There are a couple of options, but I chose to use ricotta since I had some left over from my DB cheesecake (which I still have to post!). I used around 7 ounces of ricotta, then got up to the 8 ounces with some whipped cream cheese. I added two tablespoons of heavy cream, and threw it all in the blender until smooth. It may have been a bit too smooth because my frosting was more of a dripping icing.
Obviously this recipe is a tiramisu inspiration, and not a strict illustration of the classic. You might imagine that the history of this Italian favorite stretches as far back as the French Madeleine. That’s what I thought until I did a little searching. It turns out tiramisu was born in the ripe old year of 1983 (approximately, some say ‘81, and others ‘71…talk about ancient). As with the Madeleine, tiramisu has a hotly debated past. Some say it was in the watery alleyways of Venice, others somewhere in Greece, and the most credible seems to be credited to an Italian immigrant in Baltimore. Whatever happens to be the truth or what you choose to believe about its origins, tiramisu is a favorite enjoyed the world over.
This recipe called for using chocolate chips in the middle which kinda turned me off to the whole thing. I love chocolate chips, but I’m funny about textures and I can do without having a crunch to my cake. I decided to go with a dusting of cocoa powder. Then at the last second I was inspired to finely grate some chocolate to sprinkle on top of the cocoa powder. Good idea! It gave the needed extra chocolate flavor (to make up for an exclusion in the frosting) yet without the crunch.
I’ve been having sink trouble. The last two days the sink with the garbage disposal has been backed up (I’m getting a plunger specifically for the sink tomorrow…if anyone has any ideas for an unclogging operation I’m all ears!). The whole “state of the sink” was disturbing my calm the entire time I was trying to complete this cake. For the most part everything with the cake went fine, except when it came time to make the frosting. First off, no mascarpone, which no matter what you try and substitute it with doesn’t taste like mascarpone…go figure. Still, I’m thankful for the substitution ideas otherwise I wouldn’t have attempted this at all and I really enjoyed the cake.
I encountered my second problem when blending my cheese substitution…I got a little carried away. I could actually pour the frosting over the cake like a glaze. I don’t think it was supposed to have this kind of texture. My last snafu was an omission. When assembling the cake, you put some of the filling in the middle and save the rest to use as frosting for the outside of the cake. That went fine. However, when I came to the part of adding a tablespoon or so of the espresso extract to the filling to make the frosting, I almost forgot it. Actually, I had to make more since I had unintentionally thrown out what I had previously made. So I made some more. Then forgot to add it to the frosting. Oops. Good thing this cake calls for the coffee syrup otherwise it wouldn’t taste like coffee at all.
I don’t know what possessed me to make the TWD stencil. The process was easy enough. I printed the letters, cut them out with an Exacto, then placed them on top of the frosting and dusted away. I had some trouble getting the D off as you can see. Otherwise it was simple enough to make in a properly working kitchen. I strongly recommend giving it a try. Definitely a winner, without espresso flavored frosting and all.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I love tiramisu! That’s so awesome that you powdered the monogram on the top. I love the look of the sides.
Wow, that cake is AMAZING, i love the TWD stencil, sooo cute.
Love the stencil! Your cake looks delish
Believe it or not, the chopped chocolate in the center did not have any crunch to it. Everything melted in your mouth 
Jenn,
Can you believe that I think I’ve never actually had it! Don’t ask me why. I actually had trouble with the sides. I was hoping to get a nice totally covered effect, but I just couldn’t do it. I’m glad you liked it!
Mermaid,
Thanks! The stencil was surprisingly easy to make. I’m going to have to experiment with that in the future, especially with all the scrapbooking chipboard letters out there. I’ll have to put my mad scientist/baker/crafter hat on
Amanda,
Thanks! That’s good to know about the chips. I’m still thankful that I decided to go with the grated mainly because of that picture I got, probably my favorite for this post. Maybe I’ll give the chips a shot next time when I’m not as concerned about getting a picture of the process…and oh yes, there will be a next time. Just looking at this post now has my mouth watering for another slice.