This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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
Hi Natasha,
I’m so excited to give this cake a try. I’m just curious…why doesn’t this recipe call for baking powder? Wouldn’t the cake not be fluffy without it?
HI Saleha, this traditional sponge cake will still work without it but we have recently started adding 1/2 tsp of baking powder whisked into the flour and then sifted into the egg/sugar batter for more level results. This cake really relies on the eggs and sugar to rise so it will still work great so long as you beat the eggs and sugar adequately.
Awesome but want to know what about baking powder or soda do we need to add ?
Hi Veenu, this recipe doesn’t require it since the cake relies on the volume of the eggs and sugar for leavening. I hope you love it!
Hi, I love your sponge cake recipe. Made already the mango cake several time, just in my case my sponge cake gets a bit dry, anyway here in this recipe you do not use baking powder!? No need? Thank you so much
Hi Laura, I have been adding the baking powder in my more recent cakes for more level and consistent results. It seems to help a little bit but isn’t necessary for the cake to work. It has been made without for centuries 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Can I use mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese in this tiramisu recipe ?
Hi Rubeena, I haven’t tried with mascarpone but I’ve had some readers make this with mascarpone instead and reported great results. Mascarpone is a more expensive cheese and it’s not required in this recipe but I think it would work.
Hi natasha please help me i have few questions can you please tell me any non alcoholic substitute of rum?and 1 more question can i make this cake 1 day before and put it in my frigde and then assemble it next next day?
Hi, one of my readers wrote: “I always use vanilla extract instead of the rum, and it works great too. Pure vanilla extract does contain alcohol, so it’s a great substitute. But using imitation one works just as well”. Cake can be made a day before and layers can just sit on the counter overnight in plastic wrap. I hope this helps.
Omg a wonderful recipe. Came out fantastic.
I’m glad you love it! Thanks for sharing!
I want to make this cake for Thanksgiving but I don’t have heavy whipping cream and I don’t have time to go to the store. Can I substitute it with cool whip?
Hi Julia, I think that would work well.
Hi natasha, I simply love the way u make baking so simple and tasty. I love the videos which r soooo informative. I have a request can you share a triple Chocolate mousse cake recipe or make a video on it. I would not mind if it were a triple choc cake as well.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Alice
Hi Alice, thank you for the suggestion! I will keep that in mind and if I come up with something great, I will definitely share it 🙂
Hi Natasha…I really enjoyed watching the recipe of the Tiramisu cake and plan to make it soon for my husband’s birthday.but I had a small query. Can v substitute rum with whiskey or any other. I have whiskey readily available at home.
Hi Mahima, I haven’t tried it with whiskey but I think it would work well in this cake.
..Hi Natasha… I made this recipe for my wedding anniversary… And like I asked u earlier I sued whiskey for rum…. It’s tasted yummy..a lil on the bitter side….
Thank you for reporting back! I’m betting it was probably the whiskey since there isn’t anything else in the recipe that would really make it taste bitter, unless too much coffee was added. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Natasha,
I was looking at baking an easy cake for my husbands birthday. After looking at several recipes online, yours looked the best and easiest. I baked it yesterday and i must say that my family was out of words for the way it tasted. It was just amazing. Thank you for sharing. I specially like the videos as it is so eady to understand.
I was looking at an easy Tiramisu Cake. Online its all so complicated and long. Your recipe was simply easy and tasty
Hi, I just baked my cake layers and they turned out flat. Do you know what possibly went wrong? I used the same pans, and yours looks nice and tall, but mines look like pancakes 🙁
You’re welcome Alice! I’m happy to hear how much your family enjoys the recipe! Thanks for sharing your excellent review! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Is there any other substitute for the heavy whipping cream?
Hi Keren, you may need to try a different frosting – I don’t think this one would work the same way without it. You might try this frosting instead.
Hi Natasha,
would it be ok if I did 1 TBSP of rum instead of 2 teaspoons? do you think it would be too strong or too soggy? let me know your advice! Thank you!
Hi Kathy, absolutely! That would work fine. It would be a little stronger in flavor but still great! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
I’m making a baby shower cake for my sister natasha! Her favorite cake is tiramisu. I wanted to layer it even more to make it a taller cake, maybe one more layer of biskvit. Would I double the recipe to make a taller cake?
Hi Kathy, I would suggest doing a 9 egg recipe and increasing everything proportionally. Hopefully your mixer is large enough to hold the eggs! And then divide the cake into 3 pans and bake as directed.
Hi Natasha, that is a lovely cake! How sweet is the sponge? I am looking to make a tiramisu cake for my friend and she specifically stated that she doesn’t like overly sweet desserts.
Hi Andrea, I am the same way, most of my cakes are NOT overly sweet and this sponge is pretty light on sweetness 🙂
Hi Natasha! I have been looking to make a tiramisu cake for a long time now, but kept putting it off as I didn’t find a good recipe. And so when I saw your YouTube video I knew that this is the right one for me. thanks for sharing your video.i have a question though, can I use mascarpone in place of cream cheese? If so what would be the quantity?
Hi Andrea, I think you could make that work. I have a mascarpone frosting recipe here that should help and it can be used here as well.
I made this on the weekend and it was big hit. Even my husband, who would not normally eat the Italian tiramisu, had two slices. I added 2 tbsp cream to 1-1/4 cups decaffeinated espresso coffee and omitted the rum because of the kids. I noticed that your basic sponge cake has 1/2 tsp baking powder but not for this recipe. Why is that?
Hi Alice, it works well with or without. I started adding that to my most recent cakes because many people are really hesitant to make the cake without adding a traditional form of leavening (since the well beaten eggs act as leavening in this cake for it to rise properly) It also seems to give a little more consistent results and helps a little bit if someone were to under-beat the batter.
Just made this amazing dessert again tonight, for the second time since discovering your blog..and it turned out even better than before, since I was much more “liberal” using the coffee liqueur than I initially was! Back then, I feared the cake might get too soaked and fall apart, but no such thing! It was excellent, and the best part was sharing it with the ones I love most — my family! thank you so much for sharing your love of baking !!
You’re welcome Adina! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful review!! 🙂
Love this cake! So good!! And better yet so easy to make! But I found that the top layer needs a little more coffee because the layer did not get completely soaked in coffee so next time I’ll try putting a little less on the bottom layer and a little more top.
Glad you enjoy the recipe Jessica! 🙂
The first time I made it it was hit!!! But the second time I made it the same way but it sank at the bottom:(
Don’t know know where I went wrong
Hi Samira, did you beat the (room temperature) eggs for the same amount of time and make sure not to grease the sides of the pan? I have found that not greasing the pan helps for the cake to rise more evenly. I hope that helps! 🙂
Thank you so much for the response 🙂
Right now having your chicken and mushroom casserole, it’s delicious!!!
My pleasure! Happy New Year! 🙂
maybe it was under baked? For my oven I need more than 30 minutes to bake sponge.
More:
1. Make sure you have fresh eggs.
2. Beating eggs and sugar to the right consistency is imporatant
My neice made this cake and there where no leftovers! It was a bit fatty but delis! THX!
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it! 🙂