Chocolate Tiramisu Cake

Still in the tiramisu mood, one of my friends asked me if I could make a chocolate tiramisu cake for her husband upcoming birthday. Hmm...interesing. I made chocolate tiramisu cake once, trying out a recipe about two years ago. But I've never actually made it based on the recipe that I've been using.

Since I have leftover cream that's almost expired, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to experiment :)
So, this cake consists of two layers of chocolate sponge cakes, soaked heavily with espresso-rum mixture so that it would have the same texture as soaked lady fingers. The filling is the same as the classic tiramisu, mascarpone cream filling. I just added melted bittersweet chocolate and more rum and coffee in the filling so that the flavor would be more pronounced, since chocolate is a strong flavor.

I wanted to decorate it as simple as possible, but still looks elegant, so I piped chantilly cream on the top to look like a daisy, then dust it with cocoa powder. The side is decorated with just melted chocolate that I shaped like the picture. I'm quite satisfied with the look though.

I asked my QA friends (who get to taste almost every cake I make and give me some feedback) to taste it (although it ends up that they're not only tasting it, but finishing the whole cake!!! and I only got to taste about one spoonful of the cake). The whole cake disappeared in about one night. What I found in the fridge the following day, was just an empty box sitting nicely in their fridge.
The cake was great. It tasted like a very good chocolate mousse cake. You can definitely taste the rum and there's a pretty strong espresso after taste. So, the three main flavors are definitely there, but I might reduce the amount of chocolate in the filling so that it doesn't overpower the other flavors. I can barely taste the mascarpone cheese, which is predictable considering that mascarpone cheese is so subtle and chocolate is so strong.

Honestly, I don't think that reducing the amount of chocolate would make the mascarpone tastes stronger. Whatever modification I make, this is the best flavor I can get. Tiramisu is not tiramisu anymore if you add chocolate to it. It will completely change the taste.

I like the flavor of the cake. I mean, what else could you ask for? chocolate, rum, and coffee are definitely a match made in heaven. So, considering that I'm not a big fan of chocolate and I like this cake, I think this deserves to go into my permanent recipe file.

Here's is the individual version of it

Tiramisu

I posted about tiramisu cake before, but I just realized that I've never posted the classic tiramisu. I made this dessert so often a long time ago, but only a few of them for at least the last year or so. In fact, this is the first dessert that I attempted to experiment with and finally having a recipe of my own.


It's been so long that I forgot how easy it is to make this dessert. You don't even need an oven to make this. The longest part is to let the assembled dessert rest in the fridge for a good couple of hours before serving to give enough time for the flavor to marry and the espresso to soaked deeply into the ladyfingers.

Usually, I would make it in a pyrex type container. It's quick and easy. But since I'm crazy about neatness and perfection lately (read: the last couple of years), I made it using a cake ring this time. It takes a lot longer and a lot more hassle, but it's worth it.

I want the sides to be perfectly straight and neat, but I guess I wasn't doing a great job doing it, judging from the picture above. I froze the tiramisu for a couple of hours before cutting the four sides with hot knife. I think I need to freeze it a little longer so that it's completely frozen (at least the outer edge) before trimming the sides. But, I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

I have just enough leftover mascarpone filling for one individual version. Instead of using lady fingers, I used some joconde that I kept in the freezer so that it would lined up straight with the filling. I also soaked the joconde heavily with the espresso-rum mixture so that it would have the soaked lady finger texture and the strong espresso flavor.

Durian Puffs

Another durian goodie. Made some mini durian puffs for a potluck party last weekend. This is my second attempt of making it. I made it once before using durian flesh and fresh cream, but I wasn't completely satisfied. So, I made another attempt and make a recipe for durian pastry cream or durian custard or durian vla.

Here's a closer look of the inside.

I was very happy with the result. The durian taste was so strong. I'm glad that the durian I bought was very sweet and tasty. It is the key to a great durian dessert compared to a good one.

Durian Cream Cake

Durian, The King of Fruits.
Some people would say "Yummmm", and others would say "Yucckkk" everytime this fruit is mentioned.

Me? I fall into the first category. I absolutely loveee durian. Despite some people who say that it smells like baby's dirty diaper, or some other stuff, I think it smells G-R-E-A-T!!

So, here it is, Durian Cream Cake. I made this once before, but it didn't turn out that great. The chiffon cake I used was not good and the durian wasn't really that sweet and aromatic. On the other hand, the durian I bought this time was really sweet, I almost cancelled my plan making this cake and just want to eat the custardy flesh by itself :)

Although I wasn't 100% satisfied with the chiffon cake this time (different recipe), my friends said that it was really really good. They even said that the sponge cake was good before I said anything about it. More importantly, the durian cream!. It was like almost eating a plain durian (maybe I'm exaggerating a little). I only ate a small spoonfull of the cake though. My friend eved had third in one sitting. Well, he's a big guy :)

Other than this cake, I made another Durian dessert. I don't know what it's called in English. The texture is a cross between a pudding, a custard, and something else. I personally would like it even better if it's somewhat denser, so that I can bite into it, but tastewise, it's soo duriany (if this word even exists)

I got the recipe for this blog here http://keikhouse.blogspot.com/2008/02/resep-kue-duren.html
it's in Indonesian language though

Cream Puff Tower

I made cream puffs at least a million times before. Ok, I lied, maybe hundreds or more like 50 times? But usually, I just made them into plain rounds. Lately, I wanted to try making swan cream puffs. So, I piped the neck and the body separately.

It turned out that the necks were way too big. I mean it looked like swollen necks or diseased necks. So I threw it away. I can only save one neck that I think is "okay". Even that is a little burned :)

Rum Balls

Rum Balls is not actually what you think (whatever it is). In Indonesia, rum balls is something we make using leftover stuff. Traditionally, it is made out of crushed biscuit, chocolate condensed milk, and rum flavoring. Then, it's shaped into rounds and rolled onto chocolate sprinkles.

Other than crushed biscuit, rum balls can also be made from leftover cake, which is what I'm using here.
Chocolate condensed milk is not common in the US, but I can find it in a small local Indonesian grocery store (although somewhat pricey). A friend asked me if I would make this for him, so I thought "why not?" since the last time I made it was at least ten years ago.

You see, in Indonesia, almost every kid would make it at least once. This is something that you would make with your kids (if you have any). When I was a little, I really think it was fun crushing, playing food with your hands, rolling in chocolate sprinkles, I mean who wouldn't? There's no recipe for this and you can use pretty much anything you like in this cute stuff. Sky is the limit.

I made this cute little balls using leftover cake I made two weeks before and left it in the freezer. Since I didn't want to bother buying the chocolate condensed milk, I use regular condensed milk. And instead of using chocolate sprinkles, I also rolled it on shredded cheese.

Berry Cream Cakes

Here are the cake my nephew and I made with the leftover cream and joconde cake. He's my little sous chef :). After making the guava cake, I asked him if he wants to create a cake on his own (with my help of course). While I made mine with all raspberries inside, he used raspberries and blueberries for the filling. I used regular dairy cream, while he chose to use the non-dairy type. I just realized that the color of the non-dairy cream is a lot whiter than the regular dairy cream. Oh, one more thing, we both used raspberry simple syrup to moisten the cake flavored with Razzmatazz (raspberry flavored liqueur).

Pssstt...I think his looks better than mine. Ah, I should have glazed my raspberry, but I was too tired to even think about that. Oddly, I wasn't to tired to glaze his rasp., but didn't even bother with mine. I still have two big bowls of chantily cream but I threw it all away. It hurts when I saw them went down to the drain, but sacrifice had to be made.

There's no need a recipe for this. You can use any kind of sponge cake that you like, use any of your favorite berries, and sweetened whipped cream made from heavyc ream and a little sugar plus any flavoring. This is a very simple cake, yet very refreshing. It reminds me that summer is just around the corner.