Something happened to my Tiramisu Charlotte!

I mentioned in my earlier post that I'll see which will inspire me more- to make a tiramisu or a charlotte. I already have my mascarpone cheese so I figured I'd use it for the filling and ended with a combination of the two. Both are layered with ladyfingers or sponge cakes and filled with cream or fruit curd in the case of charlotte- it should be easy ... so I thought ...

I know- my ladyfingers are uneven which makes my charlotte weird or funny--- but I can explain. I don't know what came over me but it happened so fast. After assembling my cake on a plate with parchment paper wrapped around and a ring mold to support it, I thought I'd slide the parchment paper out since I'm done. The ring mold can hold its own. Well guess what, it was the ring mold that I tried to take out so I was shocked when I felt the filling start to come out and the lady fingers dislocating. But I quickly snapped out of it and just did my best to push everything back inside the ring mold. Still, some of the filling oozed out and the ladyfingers are in disarray. To the freezer it went and I called it a night with a prayer. Oh please don't mess up my tiramisu charlotte!

So this morning, I took it out of the freezer; removed the parchment paper and the ring mold

And here's how it turned out.

And somehow thought of Stonehenge :-(

Other than that, everything else is fine. My family enjoyed it and this girl thinks it is the prettiest cake on earth although she only cares about the ladyfingers so I had to bake an extra batch just for her.

For the filling, I used my recipe from way back.

TIRAMISU CHARLOTTE

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

1 cup white sugar

1 1/4 cups mascarpone cheese

1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

24 pieces ladyfingers

1 cup espresso or any strong coffee mixed with 1 tablespoon Marsala wine

2 pieces of round sponge cakes (these are made from the same ladyfinger batter piped in circular fashion to form the discs)

Toppings:

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (for dusting)

dark chocolate (shaved)

Procedure:

Chill the bowl to be used for whipping the heavy cream

Whisk together egg yolks and sugar on top of a double boiler until well combined

Reduce heat to low and stir for about five minutes

Remove the mixture from heat add the mascarpone

Beat until combined- set aside

With an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream in the chilled bowl until the stiff peaks are formed.

Gently fold into yolk mixture and set aside.

Assembly:

Line a plate with parchment paper

Place a ring mold in the center of the plate and line another piece of parchment paper around it (inside the ring). This will help support the ladyfingers.

Dip the first round cookie into the espresso and place at the bottom of the plate

Dip each ladyfinger and line them up inside the ring mold with the cookie tops facing the parchment paper wall.

Spread half of the filling on top of the cookie

You can shower the top with grated dark chocolate

Dip the second cookie into the espresso and place on top of the filling

Spread the rest of the filling evenly on top

Sift unsweetened cocoa powder on top then finish off with grated dark chocolate

Place in the freezer overnight to firm up

Next day, remove the parchment paper first then gently release the cake from the ring mold

You can use a sharp thin knife to insert under the cake and slide/transfer it to a serving plate.

You can tie the cake with a ribbon or add chocolate curls on top for decoration.

Slice like you would normally do a regular cake and serve. Keep any left over in the freezer.