Cornmeal, fennel seeds and lemon zest tiramisu cake

I remember the day I first tried a piece of tiramisu when I moved to London and how much I loved this dessert, but also how much it intrigued me… Even though I had never tried tiramisu before, it tasted so familiar! Why? I questioned myself while eating it with so much satisfaction.

The answer didn’t come immediately, but not many days later my brain connected the dots… I remembered the satisfying feeling of eating a cornmeal cake that my mum used to make when we were kids, aromatised with fennel seeds and lemon zest. I used to eat it with a generous layer of butter, sneakily dipping it in a cup of black coffee during our afternoon teas, despite of being warned by my mum not to do that because it was impolite.

That was it! Those were the very familiar combinations of flavours that I had recognised in the new dessert that I tried that day and that is how this recipe was born. This tiramisu cake is moist and delicious, with a surprising Brazilian combination of flavours that you need to try if you love the classic Italian tiramisu.

Level of difficulty

Medium

Course

Bake |  Dessert |  Petit four |  Treat

Serves

8

Preparation time

1 hour and 15 minutes

Cooking time

45 minutes

Ingredients

For the cake

• 140g of fine cornmeal
• 150g of plain flour
• 200g of sugar
• 110ml of milk
• 3 eggs
• 75g of butter
• 20g of fennel seeds
• 1 unwaxed lime
• 10g of baking powder
• butter and flour to grease and dust the baking tray

For the mascarpone cream

• 250g of mascarpone cheese
• 300ml of double cream
• 100g of golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla paste

For the coffee

• 70g of ground coffee
• 350ml of boiling water

Additional ingredients

• 50g of dark chocolate
• 30g of cocoa powder

Preparation

For the cake

1. Add the fennel seeds to the milk and heat the milk to boil. Then turn the fire off and let the seeds soaking in the milk for 1 hour to infuse it with the anise aroma. After that, sieve the seeds from the milk and discard them.
2. Zest the lime, making sure to grate only the green outer part of the peel.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites.
4. Place the egg yolks and the butter in a deep bowl and whisk both ingredients with the help of an electric whisker to create a creamy and fluffy mixture. The butter and eggs must be at room temperature, otherwise the two ingredients will not emulsify well and the mixture will split (if that were to happen: add a tea spoon of flour to the mixture and beat for one more minute before proceeding).
5. Add the sugar and whisk for another 5 minutes or until the ingredients are well combined and the mixture becomes lighter in colour.
6. Add the milk infused with the fennel seeds, then sieve the flour and cornmeal and keep on whisking for about 3 minutes.
7. Stop the mixer and scrape the mixture down from the sides of the bowl back to the middle. Then continue whisking until the mixture becomes smooth.
8. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold it gradually into the cake batter.
9. Add the lemon zest and finally the baking powder and mix them gently until it is well incorporated into the batter.
10. Pour the cake batter into a greased and floured medium retangular baking pan.
11. Bake the cake in a preheated oven (180 degrees) for about 45 minutes until the cake is cooked and golden. The baking time for cakes may vary from oven to oven. You can check the cake’s doneness around the suggested baking time by inserting a toothpick into the cake’s centre and if the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is baked.
12. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool down for at least 30 minutes before removing it from the baking pan.

For the mascarpone cream

1. Add the double cream in a mixer bowl and whip the cream at a medium speed with the help of an electric whisker to create a fluffy aerated mixture with “Chantilly” consistency. Be careful not to over-whip the cream, turning the whisker off as soon as the mixture becomes firme and aerated. If you carry on whipping after this point, the cream might be with a buttery consistency, which is not desirable for this recipe.
2. Pour the whipped cream in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Add the mascarpone, the sugar and vanilla in the same mixer bowl you used to whip the cream (no need to wash it!) and whisk it until obtaining a cream without any lumps.
4. Add the whipped cream to the mascarpone cream and whisk it at low speed until it becomes a smooth mixture.

For the coffee

1. Place a coffee filter in a filter holder, add the ground coffee in the filter and shake it until the coffee is evenly distributed and a flat surface is formed.
2. Pour the boiling water slowly over the coffee to obtain a very strong coffee.

Assembling the cake

1. Flatten the top of the cake by cutting off the excess
2. Cut the cake horizontally to obtain 2 equal layers.
3. Place the first cake layer on a ceramic or glass dish and water it evenly with about 150 ml of coffee.
4. Spread half of the mascarpone cream over the first layer of the cake.
5. Sprinkle the mascarpone cream with 50g of grated dark chocolate.
6. Place the second layer of the cake on the first layer and water it with coffee as per step 3.
7. Spread the other half of the mascarpone cream over the second layer of the cake.
8. Garnish it with cocoa powder and eatable flowers.

Tips

• Never use instant or sweetened coffee to make this recipe.
• This cake will taste much better 12 to 24 hours after you made it so always try to make it one day before serving.
• If you wish to serve it as a petit four, cut the cake in small coffee bean shapes as per the picture of this recipe.