Small Win #20: My dream birthday cake

(It's tiramisu)

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I know I’ve been serving up a fair few sweet treats of late (I promise more savoury stuff is on! the! way!) but will you indulge me once more?

It was my birthday earlier this week, and if there’s one thing you can be sure of it’s that my cake will not be cake, it will be tiramisu.

Typically the expectation is that you share your birthday cake with others… and I do. But also: if I had to eat it all by myself, I wouldn’t be in the least sad about it.

My first cookbook was all about the power of bitterness in making food more moreish, addictive and delicious, and tiramisu is perhaps the poster girl for this principle — a true masterclass in balancing bitter and sweet.

Almost everyone will tell you that their mum’s tiramisu is the best, but almost everyone is wrong.

Because in spite of not having an ounce of Italian heritage, my mum’s tiramisu recipe truly is the best. And I know this because I pitted it against 3 famous/award-winning tiramisus — more on which below — and my mum’s:

1. Came out on top flavour-wise

2. Was the simplest to make

3. Was the lowest in sugar

I guarantee it will become your forever tiramisu recipe too.

Love,
Alexina

Coming up on Small Wins — The easiest, quickest bread in the world. An excellent way to cook any white fish fillet. The simplest + crispiest potatoes.

For my Small Wins+ community — April’s deep-dive will be on the savoury side of eggs! The best way to boil an egg (plus the fanciest soldiers). The final word on how to poach an egg (and the best way to put it to use). Foolproof mayonnaise (and also: 15-second mayonnaise!). A secret ingredient for frying your eggs. Late-night ‘I’m drunk’ eggs and much more. Become a paid subscriber to gain access.

Photo by Caleb Dow on Unsplash

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TIRAMISU TESTS

I suspected that my mum’s tiramisu was the best, but I wanted to be sure so I pitted it against 3 popular recipes that (a) are widely recognised amongst the foodie crowd as being excellent and (b) that I had personally enjoyed before.

It was a battle between:

1. The late Russell Norman’s Tiramisu Pots, which used to be served up Polpo

2. Brawn’s Tiramisu (lauded on the London restaurant scene)

3. South London pizzeria Theo’s tiramisu, which won Countertalk’s 2021 ‘Tiramisu Off’ (n.b. I bought a portion of this to test side-by-side with the others)

4. My mum’s recipe, which she has been making for over 20 years!

Mum’s recipe!

For anyone interested, here’s how the formulation of the recipes compared:

Key differences are highlighted! %s expressed as total mascarpone weight (cream) and total coffee weight (coffee)

The notable differences in the cream were:

• Russell’s had the highest proportion of eggs which, crucially, translated to a significantly higher proportion of egg whites (this seemed to be the case with Theo’s, too)

• Brawn’s recipe added whipped double cream

• Mum’s used half the amount of sugar vs the others

• And there was a difference in the strength (and flavour) of the alcohol used: Mum opted for brandy (36% ABV), Brawn Amaretto (28% ABV) and Russell marsala (18% ABV)

Beyond the cream, Brawn was the only one to (a) add no sugar or alcohol to the coffee mix — a missed opportunity if you ask me — and (b) opt for shaved chocolate over cocoa powder (but I’ll be honest, I didn’t even entertain this).

I made all the tiramisus on the same day and tested each after 2 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours in the fridge (the lengths I go for you).

Without further ado, the results!

I talk more about how the tiramisus changed over time further below but here were my overall observations:

Credit where credit’s due: Russell’s recipe is excellent and had the best flavour within the first couple of hours — so if you had a last-minute need for tiramisu, his is the recipe I would turn to.

BUT my goodness did my mum’s tiramisu come up on the inside the next day!!

It had a depth of flavour that the others couldn’t compete with and I suspect that was because of the strength of the alcohol used and the lower levels of sugar.

My mum’s recipe had the highest proportion of mascarpone to eggs and you know what? I ended up liking that a lot because it was just distinctly ‘tiramisu-ish’. The mascarpone flavour came through clearly — but so did the depth of the coffee.

I thought I would prefer the lighter texture of Russell’s cream (lighter on account of the higher proportion of egg whites!), but in the end the creamier texture of my mum’s worked better against the light fluffy Savoiardi biscuits. It was very subtle but that slight variation in texture made it super satisfying to eat.

Finally — and this may be a pro or a con, depending on how you look at it — my mum’s tiramisu was really easy to eat a lot of. Like, very hard to stop. I put this down to the fact that it was rich but not too rich, sweet but not too sweet. Truly, so delicious.

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THE VERY BEST TIRAMISU (I PROMISE)

A tiramisu can be built in all sorts of dishes (or even individual glasses) so I won’t be too specific about what you use here. But as a guideline this quantity fits perfectly into a 28cm Falcon Enamel pie dish to give you a two-layered tiramisu.

If you don’t have a dish deep enough to hold two layers, you can create a single-layered tiramisu instead.

This tiramisu takes no longer than 30 minutes to whip up but the most essential part is to let it rest in the fridge for 2 days (or at least 24 hours) — trust me, the flavour changes considerably during this time.

Serves 8

Ingredients

For the mascarpone cream:

• 4 medium eggs, separated into yolks and whites

• 50g caster sugar

• 500g mascarpone

• 45ml brandy, around 36% ABV — does not have to be fancy, something like this works just fine

For the coffee mix:

• 400ml espresso coffee — if you have a fancy coffee machine do use it, or I find Nescafe Espresso Powder works too (you’ll need to add 2 to 2.5 tsp to 400ml freshly boiled water). Whatever you do, the coffee must be strong!

• 40g caster sugar

• 50ml dark rum — again, does not have to be fancy

To assemble:

• 1 x qty mascarpone cream

• 1 x qty coffee mix

• 2 sleeves of Savoiardi biscuits

• Cocoa powder

Equipment

• Electric hand mixer with standard beater and whisk attachments (or a large hand whisk)

Method

1. Using the electric beaters, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone and brandy until smooth and lump-free, between 1 and 2 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they’ve just formed stiff peaks.

3. Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mix in two batches, then place aside.

4. Make up the coffee up then stir in sugar until melted, followed by the rum.

5. Dust the bottom of your serving dish with a layer of cocoa powder (optional — I like the extra bitterness).

6. When the coffee is still hot but no longer boiling, dip the biscuits in one at a time, arranging them along the bottom of the dish as you go — I overlap them slightly (see video below, from 00:31).

   1. Savoiardi biscuits vary in terms of absorbency (it depends on the brand), but essentially you want to soak them as much as possible without having them falling apart on you. You do have to move quite swiftly!

7. Drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of the coffee mixture over the biscuits, then spread over slightly less than half of the cream. Repeat with another layer of biscuits and the rest of the cream. Transfer to the fridge to rest for at least 24 hours (ideally 48).

8. I like my tiramisu best served cold straight out of the fridge (but as ever, it’s up to you!). Sift over a layer of cocoa powder just before serving.

Here’s a visual guide to making the recipe (it gets into the method from 00:08 onwards):

Feel free to comment below or tag me on social media (@alexinaanatole) if you make this!