Tiramisu Cake

This week seems to have gone by faster than any other week this summer. I went with my brother's soon-to-be wife to her family's house in Glenwood Springs, the happy couple, pictured below, were finalizing some wedding plans. I being lazy and not currently employed wanted something to do, and I had never met her mom. Those four days felt like two but at the same time felt like a week. It was great fun, just being able to hang out with that family.

I don't remember what I did between Monday and Thursday, but I know it was something that kept me busy. On Thursday. my mom and I went to the reservoir by our house and tried stand up paddleboarding. We had great fun and we thought it would be a lot harder than it looked but it was fairly easy, and I quite enjoyed it. We are planning on going again soon.  
Then one of my cousins decided to turn another year older and we had to celebrate on the weekend as per usual for the family. There is one thing that you can count on with my moms side of the family and that is coffee. When we get together we make a couple pots of coffee for a couple hours of family time. So when I was trying to decide what kind of dessert to make I knew immediately when I came across it that it would be the perfect cake to make for this family. The only hurdle is my cousin is lactose intolerant. For tiramisu its kind of hard to make without using dairy. What I did was instead of using heavy cream I just made a meringue and added that, so that the only dairy element was the mascarponne cheese.

 
These recipes come from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. 

Génoise Cake

Ingredients

1 cup sifted cake flour

½ tsp salt

6 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans. Sift together the flour and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar by hand. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the eggs are warm. Beat with an electric mixer on high until the mixture triples in volume, about 8 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the zest and extract.

Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the batter and gently fold it in with a rubber spatula. Sift in the remaining flour in two more additions, again folding gently. Transfer the melted butter to a small bowl if necessary and scoop about ¾ cup into the bowl. Stir until blended. Fold this mixture into the remaining batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake the cake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick come out clean. Cool the cake in the pans and remove when cool.

Coffee Syrup

Ingredients

1 cup hot espresso or strong coffee

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the espresso and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the vanilla extract and set the syrup aside.

Mascarpone Cream

I didn't feel like putting the cocoa powder on it

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp water

1 lb mascarpone cheese

3 tbsp dark rum

¾ cup heavy cream (or 1 egg white with a tsp sugar made into a medium stiff meringue)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Dutch-processed cocoa powder for dusting

Instructions

In a medium stainless steel bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and water. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and is hot to the touch about 7 minutes. Immediately scrape the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool, about 15 minutes.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment beat the mascarpone cheese at a medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually beat in the cooled egg yolk mixture and mix until blended. Add in the rum.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment beat the heavy cream with vanilla extract at high speed until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. (Or in my case the meringue, I heated the egg whites until they were hot to the touch because then they were safer to eat.)

Assemble the Cake

Place one of the layers on a plate and brush it generously with ¼ cup of the espresso syrup, saturating it. Invert the layer and center it in the bottom of a spring form pan. Brush the top of the layer with another ¼ cup of espresso syrup. Pour half of the mascarpone cream on top and smooth it into an even layer let the cream seep into the gap between the cake and side of the pan. Brush the remaining cake layer with ¼ cup of the syrup, then invert the layer and place it on top of the mascarpone cream layer. Brush the top of the cake with the remaining syrup. Top with the remaining mascarpone cream, again letting the cream seep into the gap between the cake and the side of the pan and smoothing it into an even layer. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours, until set.

Unmold the cake thirty minutes before serving, dusting the top with a light coating of cocoa powder. Slice with a hot knife, wiping clean between each cut.