Clearly tiramisu is an Italian dessert. I'd call this the Russian adaptation. The frosting is light and fabulous. Hope you enjoy it, my family loves it!

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Clearly tiramisu is an Italian dessert. I’d call this the Russian adaptation. What makes it so? Instead of ladyfingers, I’m using a basic biskvit cake recipe (you may know it as biscuit). Biskvit is an excellent European sponge cake and it doesn’t get mushy or soggy.

The ingredients are so easy and practical (a non-mascarpone version) and it turns out delicious. The frosting is light and fabulous. This version actually tastes good for a couple of days after it’s made. Hope you enjoy it, my family loves it! 

Ingredients for Biskvit Tiramisu Cake:

6 large eggs, room temp
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted *measured correctly
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for Tiramisu Frosting:

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
1 (8oz) stick cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Ingredients for Tiramisu Coffee Syrup & Topping:

1 1/2 cups Strong coffee, room temperature or cold
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp rum
1 Tbsp unsweetened Cocoa Powder for dusting the finished cake

Watch How to Make Tiramisu Cake:

Here’s what the previous tiramisu looked like before I updated pictures:

Russian tiramisu on a blue plate with a fork taking a piece out of it  And now, the new and improved:

Tiramisu Cake-5

Tiramisu Cake Tall

If you bake this cake, please do tag me on Facebook or Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations! Happy Baking and I hope you enjoyed the video!

Russian Tiramisu Recipe

4.87 from 107 votes
Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients 

Servings: 12

Ingredients for Biskvit Cake:

Ingredients for Tiramisu Frosting:

  • 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
  • 1 8oz stick cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Ingredients for Tiramisu Coffee Syrup & Topping:

Instructions

How to Make the Biskvit Cake:

  • Preheat the Oven to 350˚F. Butter the bottom of a 9" springform mold and line the bottom with parchment paper (note: you can use two 9" cake pans, but keep in mind 2 pans will take less time to bake). Sift your flour.
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer, add 6 eggs and beat on high speed with the whisk attachment for 1 min. With the mixer on, add the sugar in a steady stream and continue to beat on the highest speed for 8 min. The egg mixture should be thick, pale yellow and tripled in volume.
  • Add 1 tsp vanilla and sift the flour into your batter. Fold the flour in with a spatula just until all of the flour is incorporated. Scrape from the bottom of the bowl to make sure you don't have pockets of flour trapped on the bottom. Be careful not to over-mix since you are relying on the fluffiness of the eggs for volume. Transfer the batter to your prepared pans.
  • Bake 30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool down 10 minutes, then remove cake from the pan and let cool on a wire rack. Once the cake is at room temperature, you can cut it in half to make two cake layers then remove the parchment paper. It should peel back easily.

How to Make Tiramisu Frosting:

  • Beat 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream on high speed until stiff (mine took about 2 minutes with the whisk attachment). Don't over-beat it or it will be buttery. Transfer whipped cream to a medium bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
  • In the same bowl (no need to do the dishes yet), beat softened cream cheese and sugar on medium/high speed until smooth and creamy, scraping down the bowl as necessary to prevent rebel clumps of cream cheese.
  • Use a spatula to fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well blended and refrigerate the frosting until ready to use. Fold until you no longer see streaks of cream cheese.

How to Make Coffee Syrup:

  • Mix 1 1/2 cups strong coffee with 2 Tbsp sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Stir in the rum.

Assembling the Tiramisu Cake:

  • Place one of the cakes on a cake platter (note: use the prettiest, flattest side for the top of the cake)
  • Brush half of the coffee syrup over the bottom layer (a brush provides for the most even distribution of syrup).
  • Spread 1/3 of the frosting over the first cake layer. At this point, you can sift 1 Tbsp cocoa powder over the frosting
  • Center the second cake layer over the frosting and brush the remaining half of the syrup over the second cake layer and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorating Your Cake:

  • Decorate to your hearts delight. I used the Wilton Open Star 1M frosting tip for the remaining forsting and piped little designs all over the top then dusted generously with a good quality unsweetened cocoa. You could just dust the top with cocoa powder and add chocolate shavings. Chocolate coffee beans would be amazing as well.

Notes

Tips on beating whipping cream: Freeze or refrigerate your mixing bowl and whisk attachment 10-15 minutes prior to beating cream. Keep cream refrigerated until ready to use. The colder it is, the better it whips. Also, make sure you are using HEAVY whipping cream.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Russian
Keyword: Russian Tiramisu
Skill Level: Medium
Cost to Make: $
Natasha's Kitchen Cookbook

 

4.87 from 107 votes (13 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




Comments

  • Rita
    January 18, 2013

    yummm

    Reply

  • Mariya F.
    December 16, 2012

    I sooooo love Tiramisu cakes!!! 🙂 I have made so many different versions of it , and always uses mascarpone cheese, but can’t wait to try out ur recipe with the cream cheese, I’m sure it will be just as great!! Thanx for sharing, Natasha! 😉

    Reply

  • Marina
    November 15, 2012

    Made this last week and used Mascarpone instead of cream cheese and also added a tablespoon of Kahlua to the coffee. It was perfection! And tasted exactly like Olive Gardens tiramisu. Thanks for the super easy recipe!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 15, 2012

      You are welcome Marina and thank you for the tip :).

      Reply

  • Tallya
    November 10, 2012

    Made this last night and am happy with the results. I made 3 layers and baked the sponge cake in 3 round cake pans. I found that I had enough of the cream to cover the sides a bit too. Simple cake, easy to make and tastes good. I didn’t find it to taste much like tiramisu at all, but I didn’t expect it to 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

  • Lena
    October 19, 2012

    By the way where can i buy parchment paper?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 19, 2012

      Best one is available in Costco 🙂

      Reply

  • Lena
    October 19, 2012

    Yes i have tried peeling the wax off while the baked cake was still hot but that didn’t seem to help. Thanks for the advice ill try parchment paper next time:)

    Reply

  • Lena
    October 17, 2012

    Hey Natasha,
    Yesterday i have tried making this cake(i tasted this cake before and i love it! Thanks for sharing the recipe;) but i had one little problem:( after i baked the cakes they would not unstick from the wax paper. Any idea why? what kind of wax paper did u use? maybe there’s a difference in wax paper? idk i tried unsticking it with a knife but still it would not work… so i had to get rid of it and start the whole thing over again:( any advice? but the cake still turned out soo good at the end. Thanks sis.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 17, 2012

      Lena, have you tried peeling the wax off while the baked cake was still hot or have you let it cool for a little? Best way is to remove the wax paper as soon as the cake comes out from the oven. Hope this helps. Parchment paper is really great and sticks less than wax paper. Try that next time!

      Reply

  • Natasha
    October 16, 2012

    Delicious cake!!thanks for sharing:/

    Reply

  • Angela
    September 29, 2012

    I can’t wait to try it,if I want to use marscapone cheese in the frosting instead of cream cheese,how much? Is it equal substitution?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 29, 2012

      It should be equal. Let me know how it turns out with the mascarpone.

      Reply

  • Hope
    July 17, 2012

    sounds nice:)

    Reply

  • lina
    May 16, 2012

    this cake is very good:) i remember they used to sell in costco maybe like 10 or 11 years ago it was very delicious it was very big and for about 16 dollars. I started baking this cake after they stoped selling it. For the suryp i do 1 cup of boiled water, 3-4 tsp. coffe, sugar ( im not sure how much) and 3-4 tbs. Brandy. And for the frosting my sister used instead of cream cheese mascarpone she said it was very very good. Natasha try to add brandy its very good:) thanks for the website i love your recipes:) Gods blessing!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      May 16, 2012

      Oh that sounds delicious. I will try that (better put on my big sunglasses and make it over to the liquor store) 😉

      Reply

  • Ruslana
    March 19, 2012

    How much more frosting do you think I should make if i want to cover the sides too?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      March 19, 2012

      2 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
      1.5 (8oz+4oz) sticks cream cheese, room temperature
      3/4 cup sugar
      And you will probably have some left over.

      Reply

      • Ruslana
        March 19, 2012

        K perfect, thank you so much ! I tried it already and it tasted great, but i want to make one for guests so I wanted to cover up the sides 🙂 Thanks again !

        Reply

  • Zhanna
    February 11, 2012

    I just made this cake with my three year old daughter (which is not a great idea at 9pm)

    it was delicious, 🙂 and i had wayyy too much cream left over, so i froze it for next time.
    will the cream be good if i thawed it and used it again?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      February 11, 2012

      I’m not sure (google seems to think it’s ok) I’ve never actually tried that so please let me know how it goes. I usually just indulge and load up the cake :-O. I’m glad you liked the cake; did your daughter like it too? 🙂

      Reply

      • zhanna
        February 15, 2012

        it was delicious! she loved it with milk. i asked my mother in law who has baked cakes for years and years, she said she often freezes the frosting but in freezer tupperware or bags. so it doesnt get freezer burned? i guess. anyway, thanks for the recipe.

        Reply

        • Natasha
          natashaskitchen
          February 16, 2012

          Thanks for sharing Zhanna 🙂

          Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      March 4, 2012

      Zhanna you were right about way too much cream. Made this cake last night and it was 2x what I needed. I don’t know what I was thinking!! Anyway, I updated the recipe to show 1/2 the amount of frosting which is plenty!! Thanks Zhanna 🙂

      Reply

  • Luda
    December 16, 2011

    Really delicious cake!!!!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 16, 2011

      Thanks Luda, I’m happy you liked it 🙂

      Reply

  • Tani
    September 10, 2011

    Yummmy!!! My new favorite, thank you for sharing!!!

    Reply

  • Julia
    September 6, 2011

    wow love this recipe, this is probably the fastest cake i have made. and i think it’s my new favorite =D thank you so much for sharing it with everyone.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      September 6, 2011

      So glad you enjoyed it 🙂 tres leches cake is also easy and really good!

      Reply

  • Vera P
    September 1, 2011

    I made this cake last night… So yummy!! Thanks so much for the recipe :):) love your blog!!

    Be blessed,
    Vera P.

    Reply

  • Ilona
    August 9, 2011

    My family loved the cake.. and i loved how easy it is to make.. instead of the vanilla extract in the cream cheese, i added a tsp of caramel flavoring syrup and in the coffee too.. It was very delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

    Reply

  • Ilona
    June 29, 2011

    Natasha, oddly i don’t have a coffee maker in order to brew the coffee, so would instant coffee work? and if so how much do you think i should use?
    Really want to try this sometime soon

    Reply

    • Natasha
      June 30, 2011

      Just make 2 strong cups of coffee according to the directions on the coffee container and mix in sugar.

      Reply

  • Ella
    March 6, 2011

    Wow, this sounds good. 🙂 I’ll make sure to try it out for a holiday or something. I like that the ingredients are easy to get and nothing fancy, this looks like a good and fairly simple recipe.

    I’m a coffee lover, so this cake sounds perfect. 😀

    Reply

    • Natasha
      March 6, 2011

      Hi Ella, I hope you like it as much as we did 🙂 It has a nice coffee flavor, but not overwhelming.

      Reply

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