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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:
And now, the new and improved:
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
Ingredients
Ingredients for Biskvit Cake:
- 6 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 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
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened Cocoa Powder for dusting the finished cake
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
I’ve been wanting to make tiramisu but i’ve been feeling so intimidated by it! haha Thank you for sharing your recipe I’ll have to give it a try asap! 🙂
I thought the same thing the first time I made one and was so happy to discover it was one of the easier cakes! 🙂
Wow, this looks so delicious and simple, can’t wait to make it! So glad I found your website, I may only be 15, but I absolutely love making everything you put up!
Hi Luba! That’s so awesome! You’re starting way earlier than I did. Happy cooking!! 🙂
but the rum extract wouldnt work?
I think it still would work.
This cake looks so good and looks very simple to make, I will be trying to make it noW! Excited, I hope it turns out as great as it looks!
PS Love the fork idea 😉
Thanks Liya 🙂 dusting cocoa over a fork was a last minute thing that I remembered from a trip to Mexico over 10 years ago.
Natasha,
This cake looks so good! I want to try it with Rum, but don’t know what Rum to buy. Its not the “imitation Rum Extract”? Or actual Rum, if so, what brand do you perfer and does it cost a lot? Wonder if they make little shot bottles of Rum, so that I dont have to have a big bottle sitting at home?
I think the small shots are available for rum. I used a golden rum but I have also used Myers dark rum. Really, any kind of rum will work since you aren’t using a huge amount in this cake. I do like the Golden Rum best for cake recipes. I hope that helps. The only place I found rum is in the liquor store in Idaho. I don’t know if other states allow liquor in grocery stores. This bottle which was not very large cost me about $11 but it lasts for several cakes, so it is worthwhile and when you spread the cost over several cakes it’s not very expensive.
I am confused…On the recipe you have written 1 tsp. vanilla under the biskvit. But when you wrote out the directions, you said to put 1 tbs. of vanilla into the cream…yet you didnt mention anything about the teaspoon in the biskvit directions. Can you clarify? Thanks!
Thank you for catching that Anna, it’s 1 tsp of vanilla in to biskvit batter and 1 tsp of vanilla in to the frosting. I also updated the recipe.
Oh Natasha Natasha where should I start? This cake is super duper easy to make and it tastes delicious! I made this cake round in 9in pans. I had enough frosting to frost the sides. I also dusted cocoa on the side and top and made three roses from frosting on top. It looked like it was from the store but it literally took me an hour to make. Thank you so much for your recipes. I’ve been coming back here every now and then to get some food ideas. Everything I tried so far I love love love. Thank you very much. God bless.
You’re so sweet Diana 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Did you post a picture of your cake somewhere? I’m overdue for making a tiramisu cake and I’d love some new inspiration! Your cake sounds lovely! God bless you too!
Sorry I don’t have a Facebook or anything that I can share a photo but all I did is frosted the sides and dusted coco on top and sides I also mixed some rum with coffee to saok the cake and it tastes very good. I could email you a pic if you want
This is a silly question. If I only have one pan of certain size. Could I pour half batter into it, bake it and then after 18 mins pour the rest of batter and bake it? Is that too long for the batter to sit on counter before being baked? Will it affect the cake?
It would be better to pour in the whole thing at once and bake a little longer, then let it cool completely and cut it in half. This batter deflates if you leave it on the counter too long.
I make this cake every once in a while. Everyone loves it. I like that its not too sweet. I bake it in two 14 inch pans at the same time.
I’m glad you like the cake Inna :).
my cake was a fail.. i followed the ingredients thru but the biskvit was a disaster, it was very thick. .so i thought, ill still put it with the egg mixtures and it did not blend. now i have a sloppy mess. what could be my problem??
It sounds like there was too much flour. A new method that I’ve tried was to beat the egg yolks, whites and sugar together on high speed for 5-7 min and then gently fold in the flour. It’s easier to blend and the cakes stays more uniform. Did you use large eggs?
Dear natasha.. whats tat whites?? do u mean egg whites..? what about yolks then??
Which part of the recipe are you referring to? You are supposed to beat the egg whites and yolks together in the same bowl. I’m not sure what the question is about?
sorry.. i asked with the previous comment of urs here…(ur reply for viktoriya)
Oh, I see. Sorry when I moderate comments it doesn’t show me who the reply was to, but I wish it did! I beat the egg whites, yolks and sugar all together instead of separating them.
Can I make half a cake?
Ofcourse! Just make it in one baking dish, cut all the ingredients in half. When the cake has cooled, cut it in half down the middle and you have your two layers! 🙂
Just finished assembling this cake…. thats my favorite part((:
I hope it tastes as good as it looks!! which will be no prob if its like all the other recipes on your blog((:
Thanks Anna 🙂 I hope you LOVE it!!
I made the dairy free version of this case. Amazing!!! just like the real deal. I kid you not. The light wipped cream blended quite well with the tofutti cream cheese. I know what everyone is thinking at this point (tofu and all), but I have no choice as my daugther has severe dairy allergy and I would never want her to feel excluded from trying anything at the table!
Thank you Natasha for posting this recipe. I could not find it without mascarponi cheese any place else.
yes, that’s the one! i plan on wipping it and then mixing with cream cheese. how stiff should it be?
Just stiff enough not to run off the sides.
I haven’t tried it though so if you do, I’d be very curious to see if it blends well with cream cheese!
can I use light whipped cream for this recipe?
Do you mean one that is in a can and are you going to mix the cream cheese into it?
Natasha have u tried cool whip instead of heavy whipping cream for this cake? I have some in freezer and was wondering if u tried substituting? Love your recipes.
I haven’t tried it because the heavy whipping cream tastes so so good! It would probably work with cool whip, but it won’t have that natural and light whipped cream flavor or texture.
This cake is delicious and pretty easy to make, I loved it. But I found that parchment paper is better than wax paper, it slides right off.
Thanks Anna! I’ve been using parchment more and more these days. I think it works better too!
Just made this cake an hour ago. Of course, couldn’t wait for it to set in fridge and had to try a piece. That was delicious, and best part is, it wasn’t so hard to make. I used instant coffee. Also, there was a comment about using caramel instead of vanilla in the cream. Since I didn’t have caramel, I used torrani white chocolate syrup, about 1.5tbsp. Tasted amazing. I’m planning on making this cake again tomorrow to take to my parents.
Great, I’m glad you like it :).
Made this cake today and it was delicious! Everyone loved it! thank you for sharing this recipe.:)
Thank you Nadia, I’m glad everyone loved the recipe 🙂
Hi Natasha! Can I use one pan for the whole cake and then devide when it’s done?
You can but It rises much better if you divide it.