Unsophisticated Baking: Tiramisu Ⓥ

When we went to Sicily last summer not only did we find an excellent vegan restaurant for a date night while we were there, but they had pistachio tiramisu. This may not be common knowledge, but tiramisu is one of the things I've missed the most since becoming vegan. I vowed to work out how to make it when we got back to Bristol, but it wasn't until Christmas that I gave it a go.
I've tried it twice more, with varying degrees of success, but have finally got round to writing up the recipe.

Excuse the state of my hob!

Sponge ingredients

• 250ml plant milk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g sunflower spread
• 220g self-raising flour
• 230g caster sugar

Mascarpone ingredients

• 270g raw cashews
• 120 ml maple/golden Syrup
• 5 1/2 tbsps melted coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 120ml plant milk

Vegan whipped cream ingredients

• 2 x 400ml tins coconut milk (chilled in fridge overnight. Make sure it's the kind that separates)
• 30g icing sugar

 Coffee syrup ingredients

• 100g granulated sugar (caster works fine for this too)
• 120ml water
• 2 tsps instant coffee granules (I use Nescafe Azera because I am a woman obsessed)
• 4 tbsps Kahlua

And cocoa powder for decoration!

Stage 1 - The Sponge

Preheat the oven to 180°C & line two 7 inch cake tins with baking paper. 

Put the plant milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract and sunflower spread  in a small saucepan over a low heat to melt. Once melted, pour them into your mixing bowl along with the sugar and self-raising flour. Fold together and pour into your prepared tins. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean, and leave to cool.

Stage 2 - Marscapone

While your cake is in the oven, you can get cracking with the marscapone. Boil the cashews for 10 minutes then pop them in your blender along with the other marscapone ingredients. Blend and place in the fridge. 

Stage 3 - Whipped Cream

Remove your tins of coconut milk from the fridge and do not shake them. Flip them upside down, open them and pour off the coconut water to use another time. Then you should be left with the solid coconut cream. Scoop this out and whip in a bowl (you WILL need an electric mixer for this bit) until it forms peaks. Then add in the icing sugar and whip again. Grab your marscapone mixture from the fridge, fold the two together and then put it back in the fridge. 

Stage 4 - Coffee syrup and assembly

Add the sugar and water to a saucepan and heat until it starts to create a syrup. Remove from the heat and add in the Kahlua and coffee granules. Stir until combined and let it cool before you assemble your tiramisu. 

Grab your dish and place the first sponge in the bottom, face down, so that the glossy side on the bottom of the dish. If your dish is like mine then you will almost certainly have to trim off bits of cake to make it fit. Pour over half the coffee syrup so your sponge absorbs it. Then add half your marscapone mix, smooth down and freeze until reasonably set (I didn't time this, sorry!). Then repeat the process with the second sponge, top with syrup and marscapone, sprinkle on your cocoa powder and whack it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it. 

And there you have it. It's a lot easier than it looks. You could make individual ones if you fancied by baking a 'sheet cake' and cutting out your layers (next on my list once I've found dishes I like). You could even play around with the flavours and maybe make a lemon version with limoncello and top it with lemon zest. 

Enjoy!