It’s my husband’s birthday today and his requested treat was for a tiramisu, however I’ve made (& we’ve eaten) one over the Christmas / New Year period already, and birthdays are all about a cake, after all, aren’t they?  So, with this in mind, I dug out my recipe notebook and went to find a recipe that I came up with a couple of years ago and made him a tiramisu inspired coffee cake instead; therefore we both win – he gets his tiramisu, and I get to make a cake!  Here’s how:

280g Butter

280g Caster Sugar

280g Self Raising Flour

5 Eggs

5ml Baking Powder

15ml Camp coffee essence

2.5ml Nielsen Massey Coffee extract

To drizzle the cake with:

10ml Instant coffee

10ml Hot water

20ml Amaretto

Frosting:

250g Mascarpone cheesse

150ml Double cream

60ml Amaretto

5 Tbs icing sugar

To decorate:

Cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃.

2. Grease & line two 20cm/8″ round cake tins.

3. Using the all in one method, to a large bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, Camp coffee and coffee extract.  Using the all in one method, beat together until well combined (about 4-5 minutes).

4. Divide equally between your two cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked.

5. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove from the tins onto a wire cooling rack until cold.

6. Mix together the instant coffee and water, stir until dissolved.  Add the amaretto and leave to cool.

7. For the frosting, beat together the mascarpone cheese, cream, amaretto and icing sugar.

8. Place half of the cake onto a serving plate and drizzle with half of the coffee and amaretto.

9. Spread the cake half with about a third of the mascarpone cheese frosting.

10. Top with the other half of the cake and drizzle this with the remaining half of the coffee and amaretto mixture.

11. Spread the cake with the remaining mascarpone cheese frosting and dust the cake with the cocoa.

12. Serve without guilt or attention to calorific value.  Just enjoy!