Bailey's Tiramisu Cake

So the other day at work, two colleagues and I invited our department to a little birthday celebration (I know, the celebrations won't end. And I wasn't even that fond of becoming a year older.), so I had to bake my...third birthday cake. (It's the last one, though, I swear.) I was a little undecided on what I wanted to do, but in the end I got "nudged" to do the tiramisu cake (the original recipe is from "Sugar & Everything Nice", but I've adapted it quite a lot to my taste over time). I've made that cake a few times before and it's usually gone within a few hours, no matter how many or few people are around to eat it. I count that as a win. If you don't like Bailey's, of course you can substitute that with whatever liqueur you like (or leave it out at all and use only hazelnut syrup instead), but I'm not a big fan of Amaretto or Kahlua, so I usually exchange these for Bailey's in every recipe I come across one of them. In this case I used hazelnut Bailey's, because I wanted the cake to have a bit of a nutty flavor and added some praline spread to one of my layers for the same reason (see tip at the end of the recipe).

Bailey's Tiramisu Cake


For the cake:
360g all-purpose flour
120g cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
300g softened butter
300g sugar
6 large eggs
2 large egg yolk
3 tsp vanilla extract
360ml buttermilk

For the Espresso Syrup:
2 tbs instant espresso powder
2 tbs boiling water
120ml water
75g sugar
2 tbs Bailey’s

For the filling:
250g mascarpone
200g sour cream
200ml whipped cream
150g powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbs Bailey’s
2 tbs hazelnut syrup (optional)
50-100g grated milk chocolate



Cake:

1. Sift together the flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter until it’s creamy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 minutes.

3. Add first one egg at a time, then an egg yolk at a time, beating the batter about a minute after each addition.

4. Add the vanilla extract.

5. At medium speed, add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in 5 parts, starting and ending with the flour mix.

6. Divide the batter between two spring pans (26 to 28cm) and bake at 175°C for about 30 minutes.

7. Let the cakes cool completely, then cut each of them into two layers of the same height, giving you a total of four layers.


Espresso Syrup:

1. Dissolve the espresso powder with 2 tbs of boiling water.

2. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan.

3. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the Bailey’s and 2 tbs of the espresso. (Keep the rest of the espresso, we’re going to need it later on!)


Filling:

1. Put the mascarpone, sour cream, vanilla extract, Bailey’s and hazelnut syrup in a bowl and whisk until well combined.

2. Sift the powdered sugar over the mix and whisk again until combined.

3. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold into the mascarpone-mix.

4. Transfer about 300g of the mix to separate bowl and add some of the leftover espresso syrup to taste (and some hazelnut syrup if you want). This will be our frosting.


Assembling the Cake:

1. Soak the bottom layer of the cake with espresso syrup (just sprinkle it on with a tablespoon or brush). The cake should be fairly dense, so don’t be timid (like I always am because I’m afraid the cake is going to turn into mush), it can take quite a bit of syrup before it actually soaks through.

2. Spread some of the mascarpone mix on top (about 1 to 2cm thick) and sprinkle some grated chocolate on top.

3. Repeat with cake layer two and three. Then put the last layer on top without soaking it in syrup.

4. If you have any filling left after you’re done filling the cake, just mix it in with the frosting.

5. Frost the outside of the cake with a large spatula.

6. Decorate however you like (I used chocolate coffee beans around the sides and grated chocolate on the top).

7. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight if you want the flavor to really set in.

Tip: If you want your cake to have that little bit of extra chocolate or hazelnut flavor, you can also spread a thin layer of nutella or praline spread onto the inner two layers of cake before adding the mascarpone mix.

Enjoy!
♥ Nicole

The 12 days of Christmas Cookies: Day 8 - Sour Cream Cookies

How is it Sunday already? Didn't the weekend just start?!? Well, at least there's only 5 working days left until my Christmas vacation starts. Hallelujah. And for quite possibly the first time this year, I actually have about 8 days of absolutely nothing to do but lying on my couch ahead of me. No interviews to do (well, until my second week off that is) and I'm definitely not taking home any work from job 1&2 (though I probably should considering that I'm not getting around to doing anything at work lately aside from sitting in meetings). My Christmas wish this year? For my (former) bosses to finally find a replacement for me so I can start concentrating on my new job. Cause right now I kinda feel like I'm not doing either of them justice. And that's exhausting. And frustrating. And sometimes, plain annoying.

So let's talk about less frustrating stuff. Cookies, for example. I made these sour cream cookies for the first time this year and I have to say right away: you probably won't be winning any beauty contests with them. But at least they taste nice. They're moist and creamy and just yummy. So there's that. Just keep them for yourself instead of giving them away and you'll be fine. I was a little concerned at first that they'd go bad after a week because of the sour cream, but they're still fine after three weeks now and I didn't refrigerate them, so don't worry about that.

Sour Cream Cookies

For the cookies:
175g softened butter
a pinch of salt
50g sugar
250g flour
200g sour cream

For the decoration:
2tbsp coarse sugar (I used "Kluntinchen", which is a tea sugar)
Sprinkles, if you want them


1. Cream the butter, sugar and salt until light yellow and fluffy.

2. Slowly add the sugar and about 5 tablespoons of the sour cream.

3. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

4. Line your baking trays with baking paper and preheat your oven to 180°C.

5. Take the dough out of the fridge and knead for a minute.

6. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 7 to 10mm and cut out shapes (best are mostly round shapes).

7. Spread a little bit of sour cream onto every cookie (How much depends on how big your cookies are. They should be completely covered in about 3 to 5mm of sour cream.).

8. Sprinkle the coarse sugar on top (NOT any other kind of sprinkles!)

9. Bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies aren't supposed to change color.

10. If you want to add sprinkles of any kind, add them immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven and gently press them into the cookie a little so they'll stay on.


Enjoy!
♥ Nicole