Tiramisu

I have been thinking of making tiramisu for the longest time and finally took the opportunity of Father's Day last Sunday to make one for dearest hubby. My version is a non-booze version since I can't take alcohol but to add a taste of so called booze, you can put a bit of Rum essence to the syrup mixture if you like.

This recipe is a combination of a few recipes that I combined and fortunately it came out pretty good. This is a rather heavy dessert, so weight watchers, eat it sparingly .. hehe

A slice of the cake

This recipe yields a small, slightly tall cake. I didn't realise that I ran out of instant coffee until I was preparing the syrup. So no choice, I used Old Town hazelnut coffee mix which came out just nice for me as it was also not too strong for the girls.

Ingredients
12 sponge fingers
250g mascarpone cheese (you can replace with cream cheese if you like)
50g cream cheese
300g dairy whipping cream
2oz sugar
1 egg yolk
Cocoa powder for dusting

Syrup
100-150ml boiling water
50g sugar
4 Tbsp instant coffee
1/2 - 1 tsp Rum essence (optional)

(I used 100ml boiling water with 1 packet Old Town Hazelnut Coffee mix)


Method
1. Mix the all the syrup ingredient and put it aside
2. Place yolk and sugar in a bowl over a pot of a little boiling water and whisk it till it turns lemony yellow (The boiling water should not be touching the base of the bowl)
3. Once egg yolk mixture turns lemony yellow, add cream cheese and mix it well followed by mascarpone cheese
4. In a clean bowl, whip the whipping cream till stiff (do not overbeat as it will curdle)
5. Mix cheese mixture into the whipped cream and mix it gently
6. Assemble the cake by soaking the fingers into the syrup and arrange it at the bottom of the pan, dust with some cocoa
7. Pour half of the cheese mixture on top making sure that the fingers are covered well
8. Lay the balance soaked fingers on top of the cream mixture and dust with cocoa and pour the balance onto the fingers
9. Level the top with the spoon and dust it with cocoa
10. Refrigerate overnight before serving