Tiramisu Layer Cake

Every year, my husband’s birthday sneaks up on me. It comes 5 days after Christmas and in all the holiday rush, it inevitably gets pushed to the backburner. We run around like mad making sure everything is perfect for the holidays and I often don’t really give his birthday much thought until the 26th. And then... I panic. Because I have next to nothing for him and no plans in place and I feel like a terrible spouse. It’s not that I am not thinking of him, it’s simply that I don’t have the mental reserves to juggle it all at once. Something’s gotta give.

So what do I do to make up for it? I make him an elaborate cake every year. For people such as myself, baking is a way of showing love and affection. So first thing in the morning on the 26th, I start scouring the internet for ideas and planning the execution. And I can hardly wait to shoo everyone out of the kitchen and get to work. It’s truly a labor of love but it doesn’t hurt that there’s something delicious to eat at the end of it.

My husband lived in Italy for a year and he loves all things Italian, so a delicious variation of the classic Italian dessert seemed apropos. For any tiramisu purists out there, you may notice that I added some cream cheese to the mascarpone in the frosting. This has two advantages: it’s less expensive than mascarpone and it helps give the frosting more structure. You don’t want goopy, soft frosting when trying to assemble a 3 layer cake!

This is truly a special occasion cake. It’s incredibly rich and truly delicious, with the creamy frosting between coffee-soaked layers of cake. If you’ve happened to forget someone’s birthday until the last minute, this cake will redeem you!