Tiramisu

A friend of mine is celebrating his birthday today. The tradition with my gang of friend in Nottingham is to have a pot luck dinner, where everyone is in charge of bringing a dish of food.
This tradition started since 2005, when we realised that eating out for dinner and getting a present is too expensive. As a result, the amount of money spent on present is usually compromised. So having potluck dinner sounds great....everyone except the birthday girl/boy will cook a dish, usually we'll plan before hand so that there won't be too many dishes of the same type.
This time however, the potluck party will be a week late as 2 people in the gang were not able to make it. The birthday boy doesn't mind it being belated....he'd rather have everyone around.
Having said that, I don't like the idea of him not having a cake for his birthday. So I decided to make him a Tiramisu cake and we actually celebrated his birthday yesterday with the rest of the gang that's around. He was surprised with this, as he thought that he'll only be getting his cake next week. :D
The feedback for this cake was really good. Everyone loves it, even my friend who doesn't have a sweet tooth. And because this recipe doesn't have coffee, it's suitable for anytime of the day...and especially those who don't or can't take caffeine at night. The amount of alcohol in the cake is just nice.

This recipe is contributed by Vi at Kitchen Capers. The recipe I've got here is halved of what she suggested.

Tiramisu
Ingredients:
28 sponge fingers
cocoa powder, for dusting

Syrup:
90ml water
90ml milk
60ml cocoa/chocolate liqueur - I used Baileys
25ml rum - I used Brandy
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp melted chocolate or chocolate syrup - I used the syrup

Cream:
225g mascarpone cheese, or any type of soft cheese
225g whipping cream
1 1/2 egg white*
100g castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
15ml cocoa/chocolate liqueur - I used Baileys

Method:
1. Roast the sponge fingers in the oven at 160C for about 5mins.
2. First make the cream.
a) Beat egg whites and 1/3 of the sugar until sugar is dissolved and egg whites appear very frothy as a meringue. I beat mine until stiff peak.
b) Beat whipping cream nd 1/3 sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Don't overbeat this as the whipping cream can curdle is over beaten. I stopped beating when it achieved soft peak.
c) Beat the cream cheese with the remaining sugar, again until the sugar is dissolved. I find it easier to beat when the cheese is at room temperature. Beat the cheese first, and when it soften slightly, then only add the sugar.
d) Combine all the creams and add in vanilla and liqueur. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
3. Make the syrup by mixing all syrup ingredients together into a cup and warm the mixture in the microwave for 30s. The mixture just needs to be warmed.
4. Lastly, assemble the cake.
a) Place a layer of sponge fingers in the bottom of the baking pan. Sprinkle the sponge fingers with half the syrup liquid, making sure they are evenly spread across all areas.
b) Sieve cocoa powder all over the sponge fingers.
c) Spread 1/3 of the cream mixture on the cake. This might be a bit tricky as the cream sticks easily to the spoon and the cocoa powder. Make sure you spread the cream towards the sides of the pan and there's no holes with the sponge fingers below.
d) Layer the rest of the sponge fingers over the cream. Spinkle with the rest of the syrup and cover with cocoa powder.
e) Spread on the rest of the cream and level it well. Coat the top with plenty of cocoa. Refrigerate overnight.


* For those who doesn't fancy putting in egg white, you can omit this. Then, divide the sugar evenly between cream cheese and whipping cream.