Tiramisu (without alcohol) : Italian Night Menu

For a recent Italian food themed night that I hosted , I was preparing pizzas from scratch, hence the dessert had to be something that could be prepared a day early and be comfortably enjoyed by the hosts and guests alike when the party is in full flow.

Tiramisu is a coffee-flavoured Italian dessert , conventionally made with ladyfinger biscuits or savoiardi dipped in a coffee concoction , layered with mascarpone cream , sprinkled with cocoa .

The following recipe is a variation of Del Posto’s Tiramisu recipe, using a sponge cake instead of ladyfinger biscuits and no alcohol in it.

Tiramisu (no alcohol) : Italian Night Menu

Ingredients:

For sponge cake

A 9″ wide circular cake pan

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

4 egg whites at room temperature

1 cup castor sugar

30 ml water

1/2 cup flour / maida

1/4 cup cornstarch

a pinch of salt

For Mascarpone Cream

450 grams Mascarpone cream

1/2 cup castor sugar

4 egg yolks (use good quality organic eggs, fresh )

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cream

a pinch of salt

For final assembly

1 cup of instant coffee(black) prepared in boiling water (1-2 tsp Of instant coffee in 1 cup of hot water )

a generous amount of cocoa powder to dust

Method:

For sponge cake

Preheat oven at 190 degree Celsius .

Line a 9″ wide circular cake pan with baking paper.

Prepare a meringue using 4 egg whites at room temperature. Use a metal or glass mixing bowl , clean, dry and oil free, add 4 egg whites, whip with an electric mixer on low speed until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup castor sugar to the egg whites and whip on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Do not over whip.Chill in the refrigerator until further use

In a separate metal/glass mixing bowl, add the 4 egg yolks, 30 ml water and 1/2 cup castor sugar .Whip until soft ribbons form.

Fold the whipped egg whites from the fridge with the whipped egg yolks. Do not over mix,let the streaks remain.

In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients – flour, corn starch and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the whipped egg mixture.

Pour the mix into the lined cake pan and bake until the top is golden brown and a tooth pick comes out dry. Usually it takes 20-25 minutes in a 9 inch round cake pan.

Let it cool completely before removing from pan. Once removed, divide it in half horizontally and cut longitudinal thin slices of cake around 1 inch thick .The slices can be rough and imperfect as this is a layered dessert and even cake scraps can be included.

For Mascarpone Cream

In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients mentioned under mascarpone cream and whip on medium speed until soft peaks form.

For assembly

Take a glass deep serving dish and put the first layer of mascarpone cream using 1/3rd of the cream prepared. Top it with slices of sponge cake enough to make a full layer . Soak the cake with instant black coffee using a spoon. Be generous with the coffee to soak the cake well but don’t pour too much else the dessert will lose structure.Add another layer of mascarpone cream (another 1/3rd) , followed by cake sponge , soak it in instant black coffee. Add the final layer of mascarpone cream and dust the whole surface with ample amount of cocoa powder using a sieve.