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- Hey guys, it's Natasha of Natashaskitchen.com.
I'm going to my sister's house tomorrow
and I want to make something sweet, something memorable,
cos I know if I don't bring the dessert
it might come from Fred Meyer. (laughs)
Not that my sister's aren't great bakers,
they just usually bake for special occasions.
I'm kind of the wild one.
I bake all the time, obviously.
So I'm gonna make something good,
but I want it to be something easier because
I have some other things that I want to cook for tomorrow.
So I have the perfect cake.
It's an easy Tiramisu. You guys are gonna love this,
so stay tuned.
Alright guys and gals,
let's get our aprons on and get cooking.
It's great to have all your ingredients lined up
so let's go over everything you'll need.
You'll need six eggs, one cup of sugar,
one cup of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of vanilla.
For the syrup you'll need about a cup and a half
of strong coffee with a little bit of rum.
Then for the cream you'll need an eight ounce
package of cream cheese, one and a half cups
of heavy whipping cream, and about a half a cup of sugar.
Then you'll need a little bit of great cocoa powder,
to dust over the top to make it extra delicious.
Crack all of your eggs into a mixing bowl.
Yolks and whites together, you don't have to separate them.
That's the beauty of this recipe.
Kick up the mixer to high speed
and let it beat for about a minute.
It should be frothy when it's done.
(mixer whirring)
Now while it's on high speed,
slowly add in your one cup of sugar.
And then, continue to let it beat for another five minutes.
It should be thick and three times in volume when it's done.
While you've got your mixer going,
go ahead and butter your pan.
So I use my hands, you can use a pastry brush
if you don't want dirty fingers, but, it's okay
to get dirty a little bit in the kitchen right?
Alright, so line the sides.
You can use two separate cake pans for this,
but I like to use my springform mold
and just cut the cake layers in half.
I think that's a little easier but you can do it both ways.
Alright, once you've got that all buttered up,
you also want to line the bottom with some parchment paper.
Parchment paper works best, wax paper will stick,
so use parchment.
Set that aside.
Now we're gonna sift the flour.
So this is a really important step because you want this
cake to be light and airy,
and sifting is really a quick step.
See, so easy.
(mixer whirring)
Alright, you know it's done because it's tripled in volume,
it's nice and thick, look at that.
It's a good pale yellow, it's finished.
So what we're gonna do next is sift our flour
right into this batter.
So you're basically sifting the flour twice.
And you can do it in two portions.
So basically fold in the first portion
and then add in the second portion.
Might be a little easier to blend it that way.
Sometimes I'm lazy and just do it all at once,
and that's okay too.
And when you're mixing, just try and mix it enough
to get the flour well incorporated into the batter.
You're really relying on the volume of the eggs
to make this cake fluffy, so don't deflate it.
That's key in making this cake.
You see how thick and beautiful that is right now.
Alright, we can add the rest of our flour.
Just sift it right in.
And just continue mixing.
Make sure you get it from the bottom too,
just in case you have little pockets
of flour down there, like that.
This is a European cake, we call it the Biskvit,
you might refer to it as the biscuit cake.
It's a sponge cake and it's excellent
just to absorb those syrups that you'll use it cakes.
You'll see this cake all over my blog,
it's the base to some of my favorite cakes
so once you've got this down,
you know how to make most of the cakes on my blog.
And it's so easy.
Before I forget, oops, sometimes I do forget,
and that's okay. Add a teaspoon of vanilla.
And that just adds some really good flavor to this cake.
Luscious.
Alright, now that it's done,
I'm gonna transfer it into my prepared pan.
Even out the top of your cake,
and then it's ready for the oven.
You're gonna bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
and when it's done, a toothpick should come out clean.
Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes
once it comes out of the oven,
and then get it out of the springform mold,
I use a really thin edge spatula.
And put it on a wire rack to cool down.
And you're gonna let it cool down
all the way to room temperature.
You're not gonna frost a warm cake
or your frosting's gonna melt.
So once it's cooled down to room temperature, and it is now,
use a serrated knife to score the sides of the cake.
We're gonna cut it into two layers.
So you wanna score it, so that you're cutting it
exactly into two even pieces,
and just work your way around it.
You're not cutting all the way through just yet.
We're just scoring.
Alright, now we've made it all the way around.
So next, what you're gonna do, is just go a little deeper.
And just continue that process
until you've got two cake layers.
And then make sure also to take off
that parchment paper on the back.
It comes off real easy.
Ta-da. It's done. Beauty.
Alright, now, we're gonna work on the frosting.
To make a great frosting with heavy whipping cream
you have to make sure it's super cold.
So this is straight out of the fridge.
We're gonna kick the mixer up to high speed
and we're gonna mix the heavy cream,
it just takes about two minutes
to get it to nice stiff peaks.
You don't want to over-beat it
because then it'll turn into a buttery texture,
we don't want that.
(mixer whirring)
Alright, you can see that cream is done,
because it's got stiff peaks, and it's not buttery.
You don't want to keep beating any more than that,
it's perfect.
Alright now transfer your whipped cream
into a separate bowl.
Because you're gonna whip the cream cheese
with the sugar next.
And in that same bowl, and using the same whisk,
no need to wash it.
Think about the dish factor.
Add in that cream cheese and your
half a cup of white sugar.
You're gonna beat that on high speed for a couple minutes,
just until it's nice and creamy.
(mixer whirring)
You can see it's starting to get nice and creamy
and it's a great idea to scrape down the bowl
at least once, so that you're not getting gobs
of cream cheese in your frosting,
we want it to be a nice, smooth consistency.
(mixer whirring)
Alright, that looks perfect.
Now we're gonna incorporate that whipped cream
right back into this cream cheese
and just blend together until it's perfect.
You're just gonna blend this until you don't
see the streaks of cream cheese anymore.
You also want to make sure it's really well blended
if you're gonna put it through a piping bag
so it doesn't get stuck with that cream cheese in there.
Okay, frosting's done.
So what we're gonna do is set this in the fridge
until we're ready to use it.
Alright, generally you want your top layer
to be the prettiest side so we can see that the bottom
layer here has the flattest most perfect side,
so we're gonna take the top, flip it upside down,
cos the sponge is what you want to absorb that liquid,
and that's gonna be our base.
Then you're gonna make your coffee syrup.
You need about a cup and a half of strong coffee.
I use three shots, I'm gonna add it to some water.
And then you need a couple tablespoons of sugar,
sweeten it up a little bit.
And just stir that to dissolve it.
And then if you're feeling really, awesome,
you can put in a couple teaspoons of rum.
You can totally omit this, you can even use a little
bit of vanilla if you want to.
Just adds an extra little something something.
Alright, once that sugar's dissolved,
what you're gonna do is brush that syrup
generously onto your cake.
Okay, so you should get rid of about
half of this syrup by the time you're done.
And I like to brush it on, takes a little bit longer,
but you know, if you just pour it on,
you get these big globs of syrup in there,
and we don't want that.
We want it to be evenly distributed.
I wish you guys could just lean in and smell this.
Coffee with rum, yum.
Alright, nice and moist.
So next we're gonna use about a fourth of our frosting
and spread it evenly over the top.
My cakes generally aren't perfect,
I admit, but they're generally delicious,
and that's really what matters most here, right.
Now we're gonna put on the next layer of cake.
And put the rest of your syrup evenly over the top.
Before frosting the cake,
let's clean up the sides a little bit.
That way, if any extra frosting falls down,
it won't get into this syrup.
You could lick the plate, I guess, (giggles)
if you're the only one eating the cake.
Okay, then we're gonna to the frosting,
and with a Tiramisu you can frost the top,
you can frost the sides, you can really
get creative with it.
And if you make this, and post it online somewhere,
tag me so I can see it, I'd love to see your creations.
You guys get so creative with the cakes.
Alright, cake is all smoothed out and done.
Got a little bit of frosting left, so I'm gonna decorate.
Smoothed it out to the best of my abilities.
Don't laugh. (giggles)
I'm gonna use a Wilton 1M tip and a piping bag
to do the decoration.
Alright, prime your frosting bag, piping bag,
whatever, with frosting,
and just kinda start making little circles.
Just make a pretty little design.
Alright, we're all done frosting,
and we're going to dust the top with cocoa powder
and I've got the real stuff here
from the House of Chocolate in France,
that my friend Ima brought for me.
So just dust it on there, don't be scared.
And you're done.
So pretty, and delicious too.
Yum, now that is the perfect Tiramisu.
I hope you guys enjoyed spending time with me in my kitchen.
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