Tiramisu Cake

This Tiramisu Cake turns your favorite Italian dessert into a delicious and decadent layer cake. Coffee soaked layers paired with mascarpone buttercream.

This is going to be another one of those posts where you will hopefully learn something from my mistakes.

It’s no secret that I have fails in the kitchen more often than I’d like to admit. I figure most normal people do though, so why not just lay all the cards out on the table, right?

Things don’t always go how you expect. And this time, with this Tiramisu Cake, it was due to a rookie mistake on my part.

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What is Tiramisu?

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert consisting of coffee-soaked lady fingers layered with a whipped mascarpone cream filling and dusted with cocoa powder. It is heaven.

To transform this delicious dessert into a layer cake I used the following:

• Vanilla cake layers
• Coffee simple syrup
• Mascarpone frosting
• Lady fingers
• Chocolate shavings & cocoa powder

How to Make this Tiramisu Cake

For the cake layers I used my favorite Vanilla Cake recipe. No tweaks, just straight up. I thought it would be the perfect base for this Tiramisu cake.

The coffee simple syrup is a must do. Not optional especially since soaking lady fingers in coffee is a key part of the traditional dessert! Adding the coffee syrup adds a delicious flavor and moisture to the cake. You can leave the liqueur out if you prefer though.

The mascarpone frosting is where I ran into trouble…

I am usually really good at making sure all of my ingredients are at room temperature. This is important so that all of the ingredients emulsify together and yield proper results when baking. I never mess around with this when it comes to cookie dough or cake batter, but I tend to be a bit less rigid when it comes to (some) buttercreams.

Even still, I usually check the ingredients to make sure they’re not rock hard. But I actually broke my favorite KitchenAid beater blade a couple of weeks ago because I tried to whip a large chunk of butter when it was still too hard! Sad times.

So this time, with this mascarpone buttercream, I actually cut my butter up into cubes so it would come to room temperature faster. What I failed to do though, and ultimately what caused the issues (I think), is that I didn’t properly bring the tub of mascarpone to room temperature. I didn’t even check it! 

I don’t know why I didn’t check it. I guess I thought it would be fine (cream cheese usually is) or that even if it was a bit stiff, it would soften up while it was whipping. What I didn’t anticipate is that the butter and mascarpone would completely curdle and separate when whipped together.

Minor panic set in when I looked into the bowl. I thought that surely more whipping would fix it, so I added in the sugar and whipped it to oblivion. No dice. Honestly, I almost considered using it in this state (wtf Olivia?).

If we still had a grocery store close by, I would have run out and bought new ingredients, but that wasn’t really an option here. Thankfully, I came to my senses and tried a trick to see if I could save it.

How to Save Curdled Buttercream

What seems like a lifetime ago I remember dealing with a curdled/separated Swiss meringue buttercream.

I had frozen some leftover buttercream, thawed it, and started to rewhip it (which is what you should do after thawing). I guess it was still a bit too cold, because what was in my mixer looked like cottage cheese soup.

I’m not even kidding you. This mascarpone frosting didn’t look quite that bad, but it just didn’t look right (or taste right).

What I remembered from last time is that you just needed to warm the frosting up a bit so that it can emulsify properly.

So I grabbed my trusty hair dryer and started heating up the sides of the bowl while the mascarpone buttercream was whipping. The hair dryer has saved me from more than one baking disaster.

Sure enough, after heating it a bit and letting it whip some more, it came together perfectly. You can also heat the buttercream in bursts over a double boiler (whipping between heating) or microwave a small amount of the buttercream and add it back to the bowl and whip. You know, if you’d rather try something more professional, lol.

So learn from my mistakes, people. Make sure all of your ingredients are actually at room temperature, or you’ll have some ugly curdled buttercream on your hands. But if that happens, now you know how to save it now, right??

I’m not in love with how this Tiramisu Cake looks (shocker). I should have done something, anything, with the frosting on the sides. It’s too flat and boring. Ryan says it looks very art deco, which makes me like it a little bit more. Oh well, it’s the taste that matters and it tastes ridiculously delicious!

Really, it tastes just like tiramisu. You could just have tiramisu, but this way is better because it’s a CAKE.

Those coffee soaked layers are some of the best I’ve ever had. And the mascarpone buttercream has just the perfect balance of flavors. It’s a bit heavier than what you’d see in a traditional tiramisu, but I wanted the cake to have more structural integrity. Plus, I love a good buttercream.

If you love tiramisu and are looking for something a little different, then this Tiramisu Cake is for you!

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Tiramisu Cake

4.52 from 31 votes

This Tiramisu Cake turns your favorite Italian dessert into a delicious and decadent layer cake! Coffee soaked layers paired with mascarpone buttercream. 

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 897kcal

Author Olivia

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

Coffee Simple Syrup:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp instant espresso powder
• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur or dark rum optional

Vanilla Cake:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk (or any milk) room temperature

Mascarpone Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
• 2 cups mascarpone room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Assembly:

• unsweetened cocoa powder
• chocolate shavings
• lady fingers

Instructions

 

Coffee Simple Syrup:

• Bring sugar, water, and instant espresso powder to a boil in a small pot over med-high heat. Simmer for 1min. Remove from heat and stir in coffee liqueur or rum if desired. Set aside to cool.

Vanilla Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8″ cake rounds and line with parchment.
• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
• Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy (approx 3mins). Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.
• Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk). Fully incorporating after each addition.
• Bake for about 30-35mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
• Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack. Cool completely.

Mascarpone Frosting:

• Beat butter and mascarpone until fluffy (2 mins). Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy (3 mins). Do not overmix.

Assembly:

• Cut each cake layer in half horizontally. 
• Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush generously with about 4 Tbsp coffee syrup. Dust with cocoa powder if desired (I did).
• Top with approximately 3/4 cup of mascarpone buttercream and spread evenly. 
• Repeat with remaining layers and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 20mins.
• Frost the cake with the remainder of the buttercream and smooth the sides and top.
• Dust top with cocoa powder and/or sprinkle with chocolate shavings, and press lady fingers into the sides if desired.

Calories: 897kcalCarbohydrates: 96gProtein: 8gFat: 53gSaturated Fat: 33gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 178mgSodium: 213mgPotassium: 173mgFiber: 1gSugar: 76gVitamin A: 1689IUCalcium: 131mgIron: 1mg

The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please verify with your favorite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.