The delicious and classic Italian dessert in cake form. This Tiramisu Cake is layers of chocolate coffee and vanilla sponge, sandwiched with light, fluffy cream cheese buttercream icing, finished with chocolate shavings. What a teatime treat!
Picture the scene.. It’s 1996, I’m 15, wearing black lipstick, listening to The Cure and writing cringingly bad poetry. I have a secret. A big secret.
The truth is, I love cooking. I mean I really love cooking. It’s way not cool to be a teenage goth that knows how to make a soufflé. I had Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook and I was not afraid to use it. I adored Mary before The Bake Off made her cool. I poured over that book for hours. I dreamed of the creations in it, sophisticated duck á l’orange, fluorescent yellow mango cheesecake and fancy pants coronation chicken. (Surely they were a bit out of date even in the 1990s? I’m not that old, right? Please? Someone?)
One dish stood out even more than all the others. The dreamy, creamy, light tiramisu. It was the height of cosmopolitan cooking, European, with booze in too! I loved making it. Seeing the eggs transform into this silky, cloud-like dessert never failed to secretly cheer me from my teenage angst. I made it at every opportunity.
I still love and use that same recipe for tiramisu now, 18 years later. It was only a matter of time before the flavours made it into a cake and so I give you; Tiramisu Cake.
How to make the Tiramisu Cake recipe:
Tiramisu Cake recipe
Ingredients
- 350 g Unsalted butter
- 125 g Soft light brown sugar
- 225 g Caster sugar
- 6 Free range eggs
- 350 g Self-raising flour
- 2 Tbsp cocoa
- 2 Tbsp instant coffee granules
- 2 Tbsp boiling water
For the icing:
- 500 g Unsalted butter
- 500 g Coffee flavoured icing sugar*
- 200 g Full fat cream cheese
- 1 Tsp vanilla extract
To decorate:
- 100 g Dark chocolate grated
- About 20 Chocolate coffee beans
Instructions
- Grease 2 x 7″ round deep cake tins.
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Cream your room temperature butter with your brown sugar and caster sugar until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating really well after each egg. Don’t worry if it starts to look a bit curdled, it’ll all come good.
- Mix in your flour. If you’ve been using a mixer, do this bit by hand. It helps to keep the sponge light.
- Pop one of your greased tins on the scales and weigh in 650g of the cake batter you have in your bowl (or just guess half).
- In a mug, mix together the cocoa, coffee and boiling water until dissolved.
- Stir this into the remaining half of the cake batter and put into the second prepared tin.
- Smooth out both tins of batter with the back of a spoon. Make a bit of a dip in the middle to account for rising.
- Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You might need to adjust the time by 5 minutes either way depending on your oven.
- Meanwhile make your icing. Beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
- Beat in your icing sugar. Beat for about 10 minutes until light and pale.
- Beat in the cream cheese.
- When your cakes are completely cold, use a carving knife to level them. Trim the top crust off. This is important, it’s not a waste of cake (taste testing compulsory). If you don’t do this, with a cake this size it will be wonky.
- Then split each cake in half horizontally, so you'll end up with 4 layers of cake.
- Sandwich each layer together (alternating the sponge types) with your buttercream, and a layer on top.
- Cover the sides of your cake with buttercream, then roll in the grated chocolate.
- Now cover the top of the cake with more buttercream, pipe swirls and add your chocolate coffee beans.
Notes
Nutrition
What’s your oldest cookery book and your most loved recipe? What were you cooking when you were 15…?
Mel says
Oh my goodness, that tiramisu looks amazing! Tiramisu is one of those desserts I love, love, love, but never make (not sure why). Pinning yours right now! Mel
Sarah Barnes says
Thanks Mel, let me know how you get on if you make it. The cake is more a taste of it, I’ll blog about the original sometime though 🙂
Julie's Family Kitchen says
I was no cook at 15, in fact it took me a few years before I got interested in cooking at all. That said, the first ever cookbook I bought was Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook. It’s a whooper of a book and has a photo of each recipe, most important in my opinion. It now sits proudly amongst my huge collection of cookbooks. I digress, your Tiramisu Layer Cake looks fabulous and your photos are stunning. This is my kind of cake. Please send over a slice.
Sarah Barnes says
Thanks Julie. We’re recipe book twins!! Perhaps we should try and cook our way through it?!
Jacqueline Vallance says
I remember too at the age of around 14/15 (around 1982) drooling over a Hamlyn cookbook which I thought was simply magical due to the square pictures of each dish (what it SHOULD look like when finished) in all it’s brashly coloured glory. It always struck me that the savoury dishes looked odd but oh my, the cakey section was sublime!!! Good old Hamlyn! I’m sure they still do cookbooks now actually!
Jill says
Wow, that cake looks amazing!!! Tiramisu is my hubby’s favourite desert but it’s something I’m not too keen on, but I think a slice of that cake would change my mind! Mary Berry is a true legend! Jill x
Jo R says
Hi Sarah, that cake looks too good to eat, but I’m hoping my hubby will do just that when I make it for him this weekend (he doesn’t like cream much, so it’s tricky to get him to eat actual Tiramisu dessert)! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
The oldest cookbook that I still use is my school ‘Domestic Science’ book that we painstakingly copied the teacher’s typed-up recipes into about 30 years ago. It’s held together by an elastic band & has all sorts of bits of paper tucked inside, but it’s still my first choice for basics like scones & pastry!
Sarah Barnes says
Oh Jo, I love that you still use that book! I must dig out my granny’s recipes 🙂
Jo R says
Hi Sarah,
I made the cake last night for my friends at my Jamie at home party. Everyone who had a slice agreed it was delicious. Unfortunately, I have some frosting left over, so I’m going to use the chocolate sponge to make a traybake for colleagues tomorrow.
Just one question. When I added the cream cheese to the frosting it went quite runny, and I had to add extra icing sugar. I used own brand full fat cheese from a supermarket; do you think it may have been better to use a branded one? Thanks in advance.
jenny paulin says
wow like seriously this csake has wow factor!!! it looks so amazing and i would love to try a slice please as i have a cup of tea here ready x x
Jaime Oliver says
Sarah this looks amazing!!
Sarah Barnes says
Thanks lovely! x
Zena's Suitcase (@zenas_suitcase) says
A-mazing!
Mandy says
I love your description of yourself age 15 – could have been describing myself: black lipstick and stolen graph book from the school stationery cupboard full of bad poetry under the bed!
My strongest memory of a cookbook from childhood was the Brownies and Girl Guides cookbook, I think I made the melting moments from that about a hundred times. I didn’t discover Mary Berry until a few years later.
Lucy Parissi says
This looks incredible! I am pinning it, sharing it and hopefully making it very soon!
Popping over from #recipeoftheweek
nutritious delilciousness says
This looks great, just the sort of cake I go for in the patisserie, gorgeous!
Kirsty - Hijacked by Twins says
Oooooh yes please! I’ll have a slice, or two 🙂 that cake looks and sounds amazing x
sarah hill wheeler (@hill_wheeler) says
Stunning cake, bypassed baking in my misspent youth and catching up now!
Honest Mum says
Wow, utterly stunning, Please tell me you’re a pro? Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Emily @amummytoo says
I’m honestly open mouthed by the beauty of that cake. And the photography is STUNNING! Thanks for linking up with #recipeoftheweek 🙂 I’ve pinned and tweeted this post and there’s a fresh linky live now. Hope you join in x
The Cake Lady says
THANK YOU! I love love love tiramisu and just had to try out your recipe, my cake tastes divine and is HUGE! This could be my new favourite recipe!
It’s no where near as good as yours but here’s my attempt;
https://www.facebook.com/thecakeladyonline/photos/a.509384435772820.123227.506537936057470/722897847754810/?type=1&theater
Sarah Barnes says
Hooray! Thanks so much for letting me know. I love hearing when people use my recipes, it makes my day. I have some kind of condition that means all cakes I produce are huge, I am unable to make small cakes. No idea about that, but I don’t mind 😉
Janie says
Be still my beating heart, this looks utterly drool worthy! Thank you so much for linking up to it in this months Tea Time Treats, if there was a prize I’d give it to you right now!
Janie x
Off to pin it for a rainy day… 😀
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
What a beautiful cake. Tiramisu in cake form? Sounds perfect!!
Laura says
Oh wow, this looks divine. I love everything about it. My oldest cookbooks are really my mums which I’d pour over constantly. My speciality age 15 was a classic Victoria sponge which is still one of my mums favourites along with my brownies =)
Tina Holmes says
Wow, this looks amazing. Bet it tastes divine. Recipe of the Week
Tory says
Could I halve the recipe and bake the four layers indivually in 7 inch sandwhich tins rather than cutting the cake at the end? If so what would be the baking time?
Sarah Barnes says
Hi Tory, you could but the cooking time would need to be very short as there’s a risk of overcooking. Also, make sure you do trim the top of each sponge well or the tower won’t be sturdy. Hope that helps 🙂
TheBoyandMe says
I need this in my life, it looks delicious!
beena.stephy says
Super tempting cake