Tiramisu Cake Recipe

This Tiramisu Cake is made of genoise cake layers brushed with espresso and filled with irresistibly creamy coffee mascarpone cream. There are no raw eggs in the frosting and is therefore safe to eat. All you need are just 10 ingredients! By the way, have you tried my tiramisu?

Jump to:

• Photo tutorial
• Ingredients notes
• Expert tips for mixing mascarpone successfully
• What does Tiramisu Cake taste like?
• Storing
• Freezing
• More birthday cakes to try
• Recipe

Photo tutorial

Genoise cake layers

Note: You can mix the cake batter with a handheld mixer, but I encourage you to use a stand mixer (if you have one) just because it is so much easier and also faster. The cake batter needs to be mixed about 10 minutes when mixed with a stand mixer when you use a hand mixer plan 3-5 minutes longer to get the required consistency.

Start with mixing the eggs just until combined. Then add sugar and mix for 10-15 minutes on medium-high speed. Watch the following pictures to see how the egg/sugar mixture transforms while mixing it.

Mixing progress after 1 minute:

Mixing progress after 5 minutes:

Mixing progress after 8 minutes:

After about 10 minutes mixing with a stand mixer or 15 minutes with a hand mixer, the egg mixture is pale white, fluffy, and tripled in size. You know that the batter has the required consistency when you drip off batter from the mixing attachment on top of the mixed batter. The drop should be visible for 10 seconds. If it sinks into the batter before the 10 seconds are over, you need to mix longer.

Using a wooden spoon, carefully fold in flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Do not overwork the batter or work too fast. Otherwise, you will destroy all the air pockets which are necessary to create light and airy cake layers, which don't fall flat.

For easy removing the cake from the pan after baking, line the bottom, and the sides of three 8" baking pans with parchment paper. Therefore cut out a circle for the bottom and stripes for the sides. I always spray a little bit of non-stick spray under the paper that it sticks to the pan.

Divide the batter into the three baking pans equally. Immediately after filling the batter into the pans, bake all three pans at the same time. When the batter stands too long before baking, it loses too much air, and the genoise cake gets flat and eggy.

After baking let stand for 5 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and remove the paper immediately (caution: it's still hot). Let cool on a wire rack. The cake needs to be room temperature before filling.

Mascarpone frosting

Mix the mascarpone on medium speed just until it is creamy for about 1-2 minutes.

Sift in powdered sugar and mix on medium speed until creamy and combined about 1-2 minutes.

Add the strong coffee and don't stop mixing until it is completely combined and creamy. The coffee needs to be cold and chilled. Watch the two photos below to see how it looks when you add the coffee and when it is completely combined. You see that it looks curdled in the beginning, but this is normal. Keep mixing until it comes together (it will). Mix on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes.

Then add the heavy cream (straight out of the fridge). Watch the following three process photos how the consistency changes. In the beginning, when you add the heavy cream, it seems to be very liquid, but this is normal. You add a lot of liquid to the frosting. Just keep mixing on medium speed until it is creamy and stiff peaks form for about 2-3 minutes.

After 1 minute it starts to get creamy.

That's how the mixed frosting looks like.

Assemble

Now we assemble the cake. Cut off the edges of the cake layers to create a flat surface if needed. Then place the first layer on a cake turner or plate. If you have a cake turner, use it. It's easier to frost cakes with a cake turner. Lightly brush the cake with strong coffee.

The more coffee you use, the more intense the taste will be, but it will also be wetter. Less coffee leads to lighter coffee taste and dryer cake layers. I used ½ cup of coffee because for me it was the best balance of coffee taste and consistency.

If you want to adjust the amount of coffee to your taste, I recommend staying in the range between ¼ - ¾ cup coffee. With ¼ cup the taste will be very light. With ¾ cup of coffee, the cake will be wetter, and the coffee might leak around the cake, the longer it stands in the fridge.

Top with about ⅓ of the mascarpone cream and spread evenly.

Make sure that you spread every layer of the mascarpone frosting evenly that the cake is straight. Use the last third of mascarpone frosting to level the cake and frost the outside. I use most of the remaining frosting for the top to level the cake. I just lightly frost the sides of the cake because I love naked cakes. If you don't want to make a naked cake, you might want to reserve more frosting for the sides.

The mascarpone frosting should stick out between the cake layers. It makes it easier to frost the sides of the cake more evenly.

Then level the frosting on the top and sides of the cake with an offset spatula.

Chill the cake at least 4 hours in the fridge or overnight. Decorate the cake with whipped cream, cocoa powder, or whatever you desire.

Ingredients notes

Espresso

• I usually pick up espresso at my favorite coffee shop as I can't replicate the taste of a professional coffee machine at home.
• However, if you have an awesome coffee machine at home, you can absolutely use your favorite strong-brewed coffee instead. 
• If you want to serve this dessert to kids or people that are sensitive to caffeine, you can use either de-caffeinated coffee or use hot cocoa instead.

Mascarpone

• Please make sure that you use full-fat mascarpone and no low-light or substitute product. Also, don't interchange it with ricotta. Ricotta does not work with this recipe.
• The mascarpone must be thick and firm. I buy mascarpone imported from Italy (Galbani), and it is smooth, thick and firm. 100g of this mascarpone cheese contains 42g fat, and it is made of cream and citric acid. However, BelGioioso mascarpone works just as well.

Expert tips for mixing mascarpone successfully

Mascarpone may curdle and looks like cottage cheese within a couple of seconds after starting mixing. It can be very quickly overmixed because of its high-fat content. So, if this ever happened to you, you are not alone. This can happen to everybody and is not related to this recipe, particularly.

• Mascarpone should be used cold and straight out of the fridge.
• Use a large mixing bowl that you have enough place to mix the mascarpone.
• Mix the frosting on medium speed and just long enough until smooth and combined.
• Make sure all frosting ingredients are cold.
• Follow the directions carefully and watch the video and photo tutorial to learn how long to mix at each step and what the frosting should look like.

What does Tiramisu Cake taste like?

It tastes like the Italian coffee-infused mascarpone dessert we all love so much just in cake form. It's a rich and decadent cake with coffee, mascarpone, and cocoa taste.

Storing

Tiramisu Cake needs to be refrigerated. It's not possible to store it at room temperature because of the mascarpone frosting. The cake wouldn't last long, and it would lose its shape when you store it at room temperature. The best is to store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Don't store it open in the refrigerator because the mascarpone frosting would taste like everything you store in your fridge.

Tiramisu cake is best eaten within 2 days but stays fresh up to 3 days. On day three, the cake layers start to get wetter and wetter because they soak the moisture of the frosting. Because there are no raw eggs in the frosting, it's safe to store it up to 3 days.

Freezing

• Assembled cake: After chilling for 4 hours, place the Tiramisu Cake or single slices in the freezer until firm, for about 1-2 hours. Remove the cake from the freezer and tightly wrap in plastic foil twice. Make sure that everything is covered. Then wrap two layers of tin foil around until completely covered. It freezes well up to 2 months. Unwrap the cake and thaw in the fridge overnight. Then decorate with whipping cream and cocoa before serving. Eat within 2 days.
• Cake layers: After baking the cake layers, remove the paper and let cool completely. Then tightly wrap each cake layer in plastic foil twice. Place in freezer bags and remove as much air as possible. Freeze up to 1 month. For thawing, unwrap the cake layers and let sit on the counter for about 1-2 hours. Once it is room temperature, make the frosting and assemble the cake.

More birthday cakes to try

If you love show-stopping birthday cakes like this one, you will love the following recipes as well:

• Mirror Glaze Galaxy Cake
• Sacher Torte
• Black Forest Cake
• Lemon Blueberry Cake
• Chocolate Coffee Cake
• Esterházy Torte
• Strawberry Vanilla Cake

Recipe