Tiramisu Charlottes

I think I'm in love in Tiramisu again :s It's been a long time since I've eaten one, because I always felt so disappointed with the ones I buy outside. Since I've been making SO many mousse orders, and a lot of them were tiramisu flavored, I managed to eat some of the leftovers that I had :P For some reason, after tasting my tiramisu for the first time in a long time (I haven't made them in a year or so), I actually loved the flavor. To be honest though, I was a bit disappointed (again) in the slightly mild coffee flavor. Perhaps I prefer a more bitter tiramisu? Apparently though, most of my customers liked how it tasted now, so I decided against adding more. I can't let my own personal preference change my products. I have to at least consider the preferences of the customers ^~^

After several weeks of non-stop mousse making, I eventually received another custom order. The order was meant to be a birthday cake for an 11 year old, and the parents requested the flavor to *surprise surprise* Tiramisu. They wanted a more classical approach though, which I felt was likely a tiramisu made with lady fingers, rather than the joconde I've been using for the mousse cakes. They also requested for the cake to be circular, rather than square. I've usually only made square or rectangular tiramisu and I rarely ever see circular ones selling outside too. For some reason, I felt that the normal way of making a tiramisu wouldn't be as appealing when it's circular. So, I did some googling and found an idea that allowed a tiramisu to be made circular, to use lady fingers, and also be presentable enough to be a birthday cake. YAY

To be honest, I've never made charlottes before. The main reason would probably be because of the fact that I never managed to find round pastry rings. Since I definitely prefer individual portions for desserts, I was always on the search to find those small 6 cm or slightly larger pastry rings. I never found them *sigh*. I did eventually find some hard plastic for lining mousse cakes, so I just made my own "pastry rings" hehe. I did find a cake ring that was the requested size for the birthday cake though. 

Since this was my first time making a charlotte AND a large one at that too, I was a bit nervous about the calculations for the lady fingers and mousse. From what I know, lady fingers do tend to get soggy easily so I decided to only start making them two days before the due date. I wrapped them up in some baking paper then stored them inside an air-tight container and popped them into the freezer. Before using them, I let them out to dry, making sure that none of them overlapped each other. I found out that if they were defrosting and were on top of one another, those on the bottom tend to turn soggy :s Luckily, after drying them out for a while, I poked them a bit to find that they were still crispy. Double YAY.

From the original recipe I used for the Mascarpone mousse, I decided to multiply everything by 3. I felt that it should be enough for the cake, with maybe some leftover. Luckily, I was right. Phew. For the finishing, I was a bit reluctant to use cocoa powder for several reasons. One, I wasn't sure how long a cocoa powder finishing would stay on the cake. I didn't want them to open the cake to find a dark blob-y looking cake :s Two, I noticed that when a lot of people ate tiramisu cakes, they tend to choke on the cocoa powder. Okay, I admit that happened to me quite often as a child. I learned to eat it without choking as I grew older hehe. Unfortunately, my dad never learned to eat it without choking, so I felt a bit worried how an 11 year old would take to a cocoa powder choking :s I eventually settled for chocolate-covered strawberries. A bit of a classic approach by using chocolate, but adding a bit of color by using bright red strawberries ^~^

I was quite happy with the finished look, and felt a bit relieved that I didn't run into any problems. With the deadline cutting so close because I didn't want soggy lady fingers, and such a big cake for a big occasion, I was so nervous. Luckily, everything went smoothly and I hope they enjoyed their special one-of-a-kind birthday cake. ^~^

Tiramisu Charlotte

~Homemade Lady Fingers~

202 g All purpose flour
6       egg yolks
7 mL  vanilla extract
6       egg whites (free of yolk traces)
172 g granulated sugar
powdered sugar as needed for dusting

1.   Set to oven to 200 C
2.   Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper and piping bags with a baking tip of 1 cm *I drew 3 circles about 
      23 cm wide to pipe lady fingers in a circle, to create cake layers*
3.   Sift flour twice and set aside
4.   Whip egg yolks and vanilla extract on high until the color is pale and fluffy, approx 8 mins
5.   In another clean bowl, whip whites until foamy, then add granulated sugar. Beat whites to a very stiff consistency
6.   With spatula, stir meringue around to make it slightly smoother
7.   Quickly scrape yolk mixture into meringue and mix gently with a spatula until almost completely mixed. A bit of 
      yellow streaks may remain
8.   Gently fold in sifted flour and make sure to NOT overfold
9.   Place mixture into piping bag then pipe onto parchment paper
10.  Dust with powdered sugar and let sit for a minute. Dust a second time
11.  Place into oven for about 10 mins or until golden brown


~Coffee Liquor Soaking Syrup~
Check previous post here

~Homemade Mascarpone Cheese~
Check previous post here

~Mascarpone Mousse~
Check previous post here


~Assembly~

1.   Line a cake ring with parchment paper and place ring onto a cake board
2.   Place one lady finger cake layer into ring, line lady fingers around the ring
3.   Soak cake layer with soaking syrup
4.   Pour Mascarpone mousse until about 1 cm thick onto the cake layer
5.   Add another cake layer onto the mousse
6.   Repeat steps of soaking the cake and pouring mousse
7.   Add final layer of cake
8.   Soak cake layer again and pour the last of the mousse
9.   Freeze until firm
10.  Remove from cake ring and decorate 

One last blog post about tiramisu coming soon :s and an announcement <3

Love,

Natalie