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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 looking for a recipe to make Tiramisu and so glad I found yours on Youtube. I was looking through this recipe and the Strawberry Cake recipe where you included the 1/2 tsp of baking powder to make it a Fail proof, do I add this for the Tiramisu and also can I cut back the sugar to half a cup?
Thanks.
Janet
Hi Janet, I used to not add the baking powder (back when I posted this recipe) but recently I have been adding it with slightly better results. The cake still works great without it and traditionally it isn’t added in European sponge cake but I had a little more consistent results adding it. The sugar does help the eggs to whip correctly so I hesitate to recommend reducing it that much. I always use 1 cup – I’ve tested it with 3/4 cup but haven’t tried less than that. The cake is not overly sweet with 1 cup of sugar. Most of my cakes are not too sweet 🙂
Made this cake for some colleagues at work. It came out so well! I love your recipes since they are very accurate and you take care to provide even the tiny details. Thank you so much! Just one question though, I divided the batter into two 9″ pans and could have easily made a four layer cake. But I felt the icing would not be sufficient enough to layer all four so did a two layer cake as in the recipe. If I want to make a four layer cake could you let me know if I should just double the ingredients for the icing? Would that work?
Hi Shweta, I would suggest making 1 1/2 times the frosting if you want to frost a 4 layer cake and that should be plenty 🙂
I have made this cake many times, always a hit. I use coffee liqueur instead of rum but otherwise follow as is.
I would like to know if I can freeze biskvit cake then thaw and proceed with filling/icing or keep in fridge for 5 days then assemble. I need to make cake in advance.
Thanks
I’m so glad you like it! Yes, this cake freezes really well and you can freeze it up to three months. Cover loosely in plastic and freeze.
I have a question for you Natasha. When you make the sponge cake do you or don’t you butter the sides I feel I saw both answers. which one do you do when you make that sponge for tiramisu?
Hi Mira, I do not butter the pan. I simply line the bottom of the pan with a circular piece of parchment paper. I used to butter the pan but you will have the best results if you don’t butter the pans since the cake pulls away from the buttered sides and won’t rise as evenly.
Haven’t made this one in awhile, listening to my oven timer clicking away with mini pavlova meringues inside … and feeling nostalgic about baking this cake haha. I sound like a fatty. But I definitely want to make this for my next round of guests. Lol 😋 I honestly like it better than the one with lady fingers and marsopone (sp) and also like another reader stated I had multiple people say it looked exactly like one they got at bakery, so props on the cute simple decor.
That’s awesome!!! I’m so happy you like it 🙂 Thank you for the awesome compliment!
Great cake! Beautiful and tasty. Simple to make. I did add about 1/4 cup more sugar to the frosting because I wanted it more sweet. And thanks for the cute way you show to decorate cake; my guests commented cake looked store bought. 🙂
Karen, thank you for the nice review! I’m glad everyone liked it 😀.
Hi Natasha, I noticed that some of the other sponge cake recipes call for baking powder (in the biskvit) and this one doesn’t. Does it make a difference in the way it rises?
Hi Marina, I have more recently started to add 1/2 tsp to the flour for more consistent results and so people who are not familiar with this cake would not be afraid to try it 🙂 The cake will definitely work even without the baking powder.
Is there anything that can be substituted for the heavy whipping cream?
HI Ilona, I can’t think of anything that would work without completely changing the frosting.
Hi Natasha,
This cake is wonderful, I make it quite often. Do you think I could double the recipe to make a large 9×13 cake for a birthday party?
Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi! That would work but I would recommend making the batter in 2 separate batches and baking them separately. A standard mixer won’t fit all of those eggs.
Hey Natasha what kind of rum can I use for this recipe?
Hi Tanya, I like Golden rum for all of my baking.
can i use this same recipe to make cupcakes? will it turn out the same? esp the sponge cake?
i made this recipe and it was great
The sponge cake recipe does not work well for cupcakes because there is no fat in the cake so it would get stuck to the cupcake wrapper.
ah i see. i didnt want to make a full cake but a miniature version hence wanted cupcakes. any suggestions?
Not really, unless you bake them in smaller rounds.
I’ve cut the recipe in half once and just used two smaller size cake pans… worked out great! I just found this on Amazon, thought you might be interested.
Good luck! 🙂
Hi Natasha. May I know how much coffee you put for the coffee syrup? Did you use instant coffee powder or others? Thank you 🙂
I have used several kinds – my favorite is freshly brewed espresso but I have used strong drip coffee (made according the the package instructions usually produces a fairly strong coffee) and I have also tried with instant coffee.
Hi Natasha,
This is the first Tiramisu I’ve ever tried to make and oh…my…gosh, it’s so heavenly. So moist, flavorful and not overly sweet like most cakes out there. I’ve noticed that too with your Medovik recipe. Family loved it! Thanks so much for posting such accurate and delicious recipes! I’m on your blog almost every day! Good job!
Olya, thank you for such a nice review, I love reading comments like these 😁.
I made this tiramisu the other day and it was a huge success. Clearly the best tiramisu I’ve had. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe with us.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your awesome review! 🙂
Hi Natasha I have tried many of your recipes it’s really good and easy to make. I want to try this cake but I have a doubt in making the frosting, do I need to use confectioners sugar or granulated sugar?
Oh goodness, sorry I didn’t specify in the instructions that it is granulated sugar. Since you mix the sugar with cream cheese, it works really well and you don’t have to use powdered sugar.
Thank u for your quick reply and the tip😊
Made this variation of the traditional tiramisu I make with lady fingers and everyone loved it. My boyfriend loves the traditional tiramisu and this is a very similar variation for those who love coffee. Very nice biscuit cake… I love it! Thank you!
You’re so welcome :). Thank YOU for sharing that with us 🙂
Great recipie! We enjoyed the cake😊
Thank you Tina! I’m so happy to hear that 🙂
hi natasha how are you dear😘thank you sooo much you made my day i made this cake on my hubby’s birthday he loved it😍 very easy to make this is my fav recipe now on 😊i want to ask you can i use this sponge for fondant cakes ?
Hi Sarah, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for the wonderful review :). I think it would hold up fine under fondant.
Natasha I want to try and make this cake, and I have question, do you have to add 1 1/2 strong coffee on the cake or you could something instead? in my family not everybody likes coffee
Also where the rum goes in ?
Hi Nomi, it won’t be a tiramisu without the coffee flavor. It will be too plain if you don’t use coffee. The rum goes in with the coffee syrup in step 1. I do have several other variations of this cake base on my blog, such as the strawberry cake and others you might like to try instead if you aren’t a fan of coffee: https://natashaskitchen.com/?s=biskvit
Thanks Natasha
This cake was the bomb!! so moist..Oh My!! tastes best/ moistest when its been refrigerated for at least two days and on. Loved it. Thank you natasha for your dedication and hard work with sharing your recipes with us. We inexperienced cooks appreciate it a lot!!
Tanya, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review! 😀