Tiramisu cake for a very special birthday

We've been celebrating a very special birthday around here!  It's my husband's birthday and while he might not want a lot of fanfare on his day, I want to cue the confetti because he truly deserves it.

This year, we don't have the aftershocks of Hurricane Sandy to contend with so things are thankfully calmer.  My husband managed to have a day off from work here and there during the last couple of weeks and it's so nice to have some alone time together during the day.  I'm grateful that he doesn't mind spending some of his free time running errands with me and helping me haul bags and bags of groceries (I'm amazed by the amount of groceries my family of 3 needs!).  My husband's just cool like that.

The two of us managed to have a lovely dinner out last weekend as an early birthday celebration. For the actual event, it'll be a family dinner at home cooked by yours truly.  I asked him what he'd like for dinner and not surprisingly, he picked one of his favorites, a risotto with saffron, clams and shrimp. As for birthday cake, he went with Ina/Beatty's chocolate cake, which is definitely another family favorite. To get a head start on the celebration, I made that cake last weekend and we had no problems devouring it over the course of a few days among the three of us.  We occasionally hoard this cake - it's so easy to do so because it stays moist and delicious for days.

A family favorite (the "first" birthday cake): Ina/Beatty's chocolate cake

But in thinking about my husband's birthday during the last few weeks, I couldn't help but want to make something different, a little surprise, for him.  Somewhere, I saw a picture of a small tiramisu cake and given my husband's love of tiramisu, I started searching for some ideas.  

At first, I thought I'd turn the last tiramisu recipe I made into a cake but the idea of fitting the ladyfingers into a round cake pan sounded like a potential mess.  So long story short, I ended up at Smitten Kitchen, again, and decided to make the tiramisu cake recipe by Dorie Greenspan. Since we just finished polishing off that chocolate cake, I made a small 6-inch tiramisu cake for our birthday boy.

Instead of ladyfingers, this tiramisu cake starts with two yellow cake layers.  The layers are soaked with an espresso syrup.  In between is a creamy filling made with mascarpone cheese and whipped cream, flavored with espresso and liqueur.  There's also a hidden stash of finely chopped chocolate within that adds crunch and additional flavor (chocolate!) to the cake.  

I used amaretto as our liqueur of choice so I went ahead and added a bit of almond extract to the cake layers, too.  After reading some of the comments left by others who've made the cake (big thanks to those people who take the time to do that!) saying the cake could have used more syrup, I doubled-up on it to make sure I'd have enough.  In other words, I made half the recipe for the cake, filling, and frosting but the full amount of espresso syrup to make sure I could properly soak and flavor the cake.

Boy, am I glad I made extra syrup!  I used nearly all of it (the double-portion) and I think the cake could have still handled more!  As you can see from the photo above, the cake is just thirsting for that liquid.  I'm happy with the end result though - I just highly recommend doubling up on that espresso syrup and being patient in giving the cake a good deep soak.

If you're thinking all the dividing and doubling sounds a little convoluted and confusing, it was a little bit.  Shrinking this recipe down by half was a little tricky since there are several components to this cake so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.  I made this cake the night before we planned to eat it since it needs time to sit in the refrigerator for the flavors to meld.  The late hour didn't exactly help my concentration but I did it with joy because it was for a most deserving fella!  And luckily, the fella was a big fan of the cake so it was worth the effort.

A special birthday - with chocolate cloud cake

Happy Birthday to my husband!!  He is my best friend and confidant.  He also doubles as my therapist and occasional life coach. 

For the birthday boy, it's Chocolate Cloud Cake with cocoa whipped cream

My husband knows how I feel about him so I won't get all mushy and wordy again here.  I'll just wish him countless more years of good health and happiness.  May your life be filled with joy, laughter, good fortune, hugs and kisses (from people you know and love, of course).  May all the movies you watch be action packed and gory the way you like it.

My husband and I have celebrated many birthdays together.  He always goes out of his way to do up my birthday.  We are always jokingly celebrating my birthday "week" or referring to August as my birthday "month."  So I hope he doesn't mind my meager offerings of a meal, cake, and small gift on his special day.  I know he doesn't; we both appreciate the little things in life and realize how lucky we are.

We're celebrating this birthday with what I'm calling "chocolate cloud cake".  I found a version of this cake months ago on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, and filed it away for this occasion.  It's a flourless chocolate cake,  one of my husband's favorites.  The texture is super light and airy and made me think of clouds, hence, the name I've tagged on to it.  It's called "lighter-than-air chocolate cake" on Smitten Kitchen - also very appropriate!  This cake is far lighter than the Gotham Bar & Grill chocolate cake (also another flourless cake) and more along the lines of the basic flourless chocolate cake I often make without any filling.  I think this cake is the perfect "dressed up" flourless chocolate cake.  We liked having a bit of chocolate shavings on top, which adds extra chocolate and a little bit of crunch.

While the cake tastes ever so light, it's full of chocolate flavor.   I made a 2-layer cake here but you can do it up and make 3 or 4 layers for a larger crowd.  Since  the cake and cocoa whipped cream are so light, smooth, and silky, it goes down ever so easily and  you end up packing it away (in your tummy) rather quickly.  It was a little bit of a risk making something new for a birthday celebration but this cake really met our expectations; we'll be making it over and over again in our house, special occasion or not!