Tiramisu cake

This cake has been there in my mind for quite sometime, or probably months, but never been able to do it, I thought its a difficult one to do and then it was my dear husband's b'day the last week and since we were travelling I couldn't bake a cake. Only because I dint bake a cake for their father's b'day the kids thought their father's b'day is not over yet.. How sweet and innocent of them :) So I thought of venturing out baking this cake, thoroughly enjoyed baking it and of course my family and friends loved it. And I bet it is not that difficult, or probably I choose an easy path(recipe)for the cake. I did Google search for recipes for the same and there seem to loads of recipes too as usual. I zeroed of some factors of few recipes and derived this product :)
I made the mascarpone cheese at home, and I bet it very easy to make at home, all you need is fresh cream and a lemon.

For mascarpone cheese adapted from baking obsession
Ingredients:

• 500 ml fresh cream
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. It will cover the back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

For the cake

4 eggs separated

2 tbspns cold water

1 cup sugar ( powdered)

1/2 cup boiling water

1 and half cups cake flour, sfifted 

1/2 tspn cream of tartar

1  tspn vanilla essence

1/2 tspn almond essence

Method

Prepare two 8 inch pans or one 9 inch pan ( I used the latter) If you want four layers and more height for the cake use two 8 inch pans. Prepare the pans and keep aside.

Sift the flour and measure. I used white flour for this cake, dint use wheat flour as usual. For one and half cup of cake flour you can take 1 and half cup of wheat flour, remove two tablespoons of flour and measure you cake flour and keep aside.

Put the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and add 2 tbpsns of cold water into it. Start beating and sowly add the powdered sugar into the egg yolks while you continue beating it and beat until the egg yolks are pale yellow and then now add boiling water while you still beat the mixture. Add salt to the sifted flour and then sift the flour to the egg mixture. Gently fold in the flour with the batter, make sure you don't loose the aeration in the batter. 

Next you put the egg whites in a bowl and then add the cream f tartar abd beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Again gently fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. at this point add the vanilla essence and the almond essence and and the remaining egg whites and fold in the mixture with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter into pans and bake at 180 degrees preheated oven. Bake the cake for 30 mins or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Let it cool.

Now you have the cake ready and also the mascaropone cream ready. Now lets move on the filling and frosting.

For the espresso extract
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder ( I used Nescafe Select)
2 tablespoons boiling water
> Stir the coffee powder in hot water and keep aside
For the espresso syrup: 
1 cup water 
3 tablespoons sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 tbspn espresso extract
>Boil the water with the rest of the ingredients and keep aside.

For the filling and frosting:
232 grams of mascarpone
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon espresso extract
1 cup cold sweetened whipping cream 
1/2 cup grated chocolate

>Whisk the mascarpone cream, sugar, vanilla extract, espresso extract and keep  aside
>Whip the whipping cream will stiff, slowly fold in the whisked mascarpone mixture carefully and keep aside.

Assembling the cake
Now that your syrup and the cream mixture is ready get ready to assembling the cake and frosting it.
Slice the cake and place one layer on the assembling board, brush the syrup until the cake is coated and soaked in the syrup. Now give a coat of the cream and also sprinkle some grated chocolate over it. Repeat with the rest of the layers and finally frost the outside of the cake and decorate the cake as you wish . You can even decorate the cake in the simplest way by simply sifting some cocoa powder over the cake.

Simple right.. bake and enjoy it!!!