Tiramisu Cake
I’m a BIIIIG fan of Tiramisu so this week’s TWD was a nice surprise to see the “Tiramisu Cake”. Here, in Buenos Aires, it’s not always easy to find mascarpone, one of the key ingredients in making a Tiramisu. It’s not to say that you CAN’T find it, but frankly, it ain’t easy and it ain’t cheap. But here, I often get requests to make Tiramisu – and my family here even considers it to be one of my specialties… but I have a secret… I don’t actually use mascarpone.
It started out when I made my first Tiramisu here. I searched and searched for mascarpone and *heard* of a few places out in Martinez (inaccessible to me that day) or in Patio Bullrich (where I knew that I would pay a fortune and only had a limited budget to work with) that had mascarpone. I almost gave up my search! But instead, I started searching for “mascarpone substitute” on the internets. One of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali, gave a great substitute for which I use this day still.
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 c. heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
Soften the cream cheese a bit by mixing it up, pour in the heavy cream and mix some more and then add the diced butter and mix until they’ve disappeared. It’s super simple. For this particular recipe I just use regular old cheap cream cheese (not Philadelphia) and my recipe comes out perfect every time.
So on to the recipe for TWD. Everything came out looking so pretty – I was totally happy with my few minor cosmetic adjustments and I had such a fun time in the kitchen as I always do… The cake was simply delicious, although Javier kept critiquing the cake as though it was a Tiramisu – saying that it should be totally moist with espresso throughout the cake and he kept trying to take the parts that were super moist. (It was kind of annoying). But once I explained to him that it wasn’t a Tiramisu, that it was a Tiramisu flavored CAKE, he kind of backed off and admitted to its goodness.
It looked really pretty, it tasted fantastic, but in the end, I think I’m just not a big cake fan. If there’s going to be a cake, it’s gotta be chocolaty and creamy and fudgy and rich all at the same time.
On the other hand, I know the cake’s value. If someone asked me to bring an interesting cake to a party, I’d make this one.
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Ricotta makes a good alternative as well, not as fluffy, but not as cloying as the mascarpone can be sometimes.
Your cake looks lovely. I have to admit that even though the cake is tiramisu inspired, I wanted it to be more moist, too. I think I’ll probably make it again with more syrup.