Tiramisu / 提拉米苏蛋糕 / ティラミスケーキ

I have been idle on My Kitchen for awhile. Causes or excuses? Weather, travel and sickness. The weather is getting much colder now in Japan. It is the best time to enjoy beautiful autumn view actually but we have not  had a chance to go for that yet since we came from Malaysia last week. Now, all of us caught a cold. Cold weather has also triggered John's asthma symptom he is the poorest one.

Since I have not done much for My Kitchen, I would like to share with you guys three cakes I made in October - cake month. Luckily all celebrations were not too close to each other, two weeks apart to be specific (1st, 17th and 30th).

Both my boys love to lick clean the spatula whenever I bake a cake. In Malaysia, I sometimes hesitated to let them have fun with that considering the freshness of eggs as eggs from the wet markets do not come with an expiry date. Maybe my worry was unnecessary but the prevention is better than sorry I think.

This was our conversation when my elder boy (4y8m) saw me adding in the rum:

Him: Mama, is that osake (liquor)?
Me: Yes.
Him: Stop! (Raised his voice) Cannot put osake.
Me: Why?
Him: Because kodomo (children, in Japanese) cannot drink osake.
Me: Good. So you cannot eat, mama and papa will eat.
Him: Cannot, I want to eat! You cannot put osake!
Me: But no osake not nice.
Him: No osake is also nice, and I would not mabuk (drunk, in Malay).

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com, scaled down to fit my 9" pan, and added extra rum as suggested in the review.

Ingredients:

Custard Layer

4 egg yolks
100 g white sugar
105 ml milk
305 g mascarpone cheese

Fresh Cream Layer

200 ml fresh cream
2 ml vanilla extract

Ladyfingers

40 ml strong coffee, room temperature
40 ml rum
106 g ladyfingers cookie

Topping

4 g unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils.
2. Cook further on low heat for about 1 minute, then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly with a plastic wrap then chill in the refrigerator 1 hour. 
3. Then, whisk in the mascarpone cheese. Mix until smooth. Keep in the refrigerator.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the fresh cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. 
5. In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise and drizzle with coffee mixture.
6. Arrange half amount of the soaked ladyfingers onto bottom of the pan.
7. Spread half amount of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers, then half amount of the whipped cream over that.
8. Repeat Step 7. Dust the top with cocoa powder. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours, or until set. Decorate as desired.

My boy had fun cleaning up the baking pan, tiramisu for hubby's birthday. The cake was really nice but more coffee and liquor needed for adult version.

  

For our anniversary - Strawberry cake, sponge cake with strawberry and fresh cream.

For little one's 3rd birthday - Anpanman cake, cheese-sponge with strawberry mousse and strawberry filling. Something easy and made without food colouring, but icing was a mess.