fortymisu

last year i took a promotion during the summer and when i left my old position i gave my replacement my day planner since it was already loaded up with all the events and meetings i had lined up. when i went shopping for a new day planner i bought a “school year” one (august-july), and in an attempt to get back on normal business years i wanted to buy a 16-month one this year…alas, i could not find one that was the proper layout so i decided to hold off until january and start fresh. you may recall me mentioning something about this when i posted about laurens gigundo poptart, and yeah, i havent updated my outlook calendar with birthdays yet.

because of this, my boss’ birthday snuck up on me. our company newsletter comes out every week, listing birthdays, and this week my boss’ birthday was on there. his birthday was yesterday, however we were all in meetings for pretty much the whole day so i decided to throw a surprise party for him today– what better way to surprise someone than to have the party after their birthday? ha! anyway, since i am known as the office baker, i couldnt just pick up some cookies at the store like anyone else. no, i felt it was my duty to make a cake, since it was the BIG 4-0, after all!

the safe thing to do would have been to make a standard cake, one with a recipe i am confident in, that i could make in my sleep. but i live life on the edge; i live dangerously; i try out recipes i have never made before for large groups of people, possibly including the ceo of my company. sometimes they come out amazing, sometimes they come out terrible, and sometimes they come out okay…. but that is a risk i have to take if i want to grow as a baker.

i did a search through my recipes i have been meaning to try, and when i got to dorie greenspans tiramisu cake and a tiramisu bundt cake i had seen on a website, i knew it would be one of those. since it was a birthday, i decided to go with the cake cake rather than the bundt.

i ended up not getting started until close to 9pm, which is considerably later than i should have started making this cake. i will tell you, i had a heck of a time finding instant espresso powder and i swear the marscapone was hiding from me…the guy at the grocery store had never even heard of it. once i got going, it felt like it went pretty quickly, but i dont think i finished until after 10. the recipe wasnt difficult, which was welcome at that hour for sure! one part said not to be concerned if the batter looked curdled and funny thing is i got a little concerned that my batter did not look curdled. was it supposed to?

i put my non-curdled cakes in the oven and when they came out i was very pleased to find that they did not crown, which means i did not have to level them– hooray! i tried tasting a small scrap that had fallen off during removal from the pans and it was the strangest thing, it didnt taste like anything. i may have burned my mouth on some hot tea earlier, or maybe it was just such a neutral sponge cake that it didnt have much of a taste (for this reason i will never make this base cake unless flavorful syrups, frostings, and/or fruits are being used). as for the smell, it smelled a little eggy, but that is kinda typical of a sponge cake.

the only snafu was that i was afraid of using so much icing in the filling that i would not be able to cover the whole outside of the cake (this has happened to me before); when i finished icing the outside i found myself with a good deal left over. oops. i decided i wanted to stencil “40″ onto the top of the cake, so i mixed up some chopped chocolate, cocoa powder, and espresso powder for the dusting, and cut up a piece of parchment paper to make the stencil. mind you, i could not find an exacto knife, so i used a clean thumbtack to cut the paper– thankfully this worked, *and* gave me an opportunity to sing along to some beastie boys “she’s crafty”

when the cake was served i eagerly awaited with my camera as those around me i am sure held in laughter. “whats with this girl who takes pictures of the food she makes?”  i like it. deal with it.  [o;   as i suspected, it could have used some more filling, but thats okay. the reviews were mixed: one girl said that she usually doesnt like tiramisu because of the soggy lady fingers, so since this was a cake she said it was the best tiramisu she ever had; i got a couple of “very good”s; the rest of the people said it was “good”, which is not among the best things they have said about my baking. i am not sure if this is because they dont like tiramisu, i messed something up, or this just wasnt as good of a recipe as i had hoped. my feeling is that people expected tiramisu when this was, in fact, a cake. also, next time i am thinking i will use brandy rather than kahlua.

Thanks to smittenkitchen for posting dorie’s recipe:

For the cake layers:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

For the espresso extract:
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons boiling water

For the espresso syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (Deb note: I used brandy)

For the filling and frosting:
1 8-ounce container mascarpone
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy (Deb note: I used brandy)
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or about 1/2 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Chocolate-covered espresso beans, for decoration (optional)
Cocoa powder, for dusting

Getting ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9×2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To make the cake:
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right-side up.

To make the extract:
Stir the espresso powder and boiling water together in a small cup until blended. Set aside.

To make the syrup:
Stir the water and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil. Pour the syrup into a small heatproof bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the espresso extract and the liqueur or brandy; set aside.

To make the filling and frosting:
Put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liqueur in a large bowl and whisk just until blended and smooth.

Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir about one quarter of the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a light touch.

To assemble the cake:
If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Place one layer right-side up on a cardboard round or a cake plate protected with strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a pastry brush or a small spoon, soak the layer with about one third of the espresso syrup. Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over the layer – user about 1 1/4 cups – and gently press the chopped chocolate into the filling. Put the second cake layer on the counter and soak the top of it with half the remaining espresso syrup, then turn the layer over and position it, soaked side down, over the filling. Soak the top of the cake with the remaining syrup.

For the frosting, whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling. Taste the frosting as you go to decide how much extract you want to add. If the frosting looks as if it might be a little too soft to spread over the cake, press a piece of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so. Refrigerate the cake too.

With a long metal icing spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and over the top. If you want to decorate the cake with chocolate-covered espresso beans, press them into the filling, making concentric circles of beans or just putting some beans in the center of the cake.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours (or for up to 1 day) before serving – the elements need time to meld.