Nut-free Egg-free White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

Alright already! Don't get all excited!! I know this not a real tiramisu but surely, it looks like one! It is made up of layers of egg-free vanilla bean sponge cake, soaked in Baileys liqueur....mmmmmm!!!...and sandwiched with egg-free white chocolate mousse (insert more 'mmmmmm!'s here), and dusted over with pure cocoa powder.....mmmm..mmmm...MMMMM! Totally sinful and delicious! Time taken to make it is a little lengthy but believe me, it is worth it. Excellent dessert for a party due to the do-ahead factor, presentation and decadence value. Hope you enjoy this recipe.

A slice of heaven

Nut-free & Egg-free White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

For Sponge Cake:
Dry ingredients:
160 gm self-raising flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
70 gm fine sugar

Wet ingredients:
190 ml water
67.5ml /4 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil
1/4 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

White Chocolate Mousse
White chocolate melts - 200gm
Cream - 200ml
Cold Whipping cream - 400ml

Baileys Chocolate Liqueur - 4 tablespoons
Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon

Method: For Cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line 2 6" cake pans with baking paper and spray lightly with canola cooking spray. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and add all the wet ingredients in and mix together with a whisk. Stop once batter is lump free.Divide between cake pans and bake for 15 - 20 minutes till done. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Once cooled, remove just one cake from tin, leaving the other cake in its tin.

For White Chocolate Mousse: Place white chocolate melts in a heat proof bowl. Warm cream in a separate pan till bubbles form around the edges, and pour over the chocolate melts. Stir with a wooden spoon till chocolate is completely melted. Cool and chill till completely cold. Whip whipping cream carefully till gentle peaks form. Fold in the cooled ganache into the whipped cream. Keep chilled till needed.

To assemble dessert: Sprinkle each layer with 2 tablespoons of liqueur. Then cover the cake layer still in tin, with half the chocolate mousse. Place the second layer of cake on top. Cover the whole with plastic wrap and return to the fridge for 2 hours. Remove after 2 hours, remove from tin and cover sides and top with remaining mousse. Sift cocoa powder over the top of cake and return to the fridge till ready to serve, at least 2 hours. This desert easily serves 6 insane or 8 sane portions!

Casein allergy

A glass of milk

Baking this weekend for a gluten and casein allergy sufferer. I have been baking gluten free cupcakes for a while now but this will be my first attempt at a layer cake. What's the big deal right? Well, the deal is, I'm afraid that the cake will crumble while assembling or after. So I'm trying to work out the best way to go about it. While I'm processing that in some corner of my mind, I'm checking out this casein thing. With a lot of help from the internet, this is what I gathered in a nutshell.......I think I'm beginning to sound archaic. Must be the early hour. It's just after 5am here, so a little hard to sound hip at this hour. Again an age thing.
Casein is a milk protein and it's found in a whole lot of stuff including some supposedly non-dairy spreads - how scary is that? Whey is the other culprit for dairy allergy suffers. So we have to read the list of ingredients very carefully to make sure that there is nothing toxic hidden under fancy words on the list. Stuff like lactalbumin, which is albumin found in whey, is a no-no! See, this is really hard work. In fact, it scares me so much, that I make sure I recognize everything I read on the back of a package. And fewer the number of ingredients, the better as its less processed and closer to the real deal.

Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Here is the egg free, dairy (casein) free, gluten free chocolate fudge layer cake I baked this weekend. I will follow up with the recipe really soon. Cheers!

A slice from the above cake