Cocktail House Cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 12 eggs
• 360 g sugar
• 360 g flour
• 120 g cornstarch
• 120 g butter, melted
• 500 g mascarpone
• 250 g quark, 20%
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp liqueur (Ramazzotti)
• 100 ml liqueur (Ramazzotti)
• 100 ml water
• 450 ml milk
• 50 ml liqueur (Ramazzotti)
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 50 g cornstarch or a sachet of vanilla or cream pudding powder
• 250 g butter, room temperature
• 30 ladyfingers

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 4 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 35 minutes; Total time approx. 6 hours 5 minutes

Tiramisu-style, filled with Ramazzotti cream and sponge fingers

Preheat the oven to 190°C (top/bottom heat). Line a baking sheet with baking paper and use a baking frame to create an area of ​​approximately 30 x 37 cm. The baking frame can, of course, be a different size, but this worked well for me with the amount of batter. For the sponge cake, whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla sugar over a pan of simmering water until it reaches 35°C. Then transfer to a mixing bowl. Beat with a mixer for 12 minutes until foamy enough that a spoon leaves traces. The bowl must be large, as the volume will increase considerably. Mix and sift the flour and cornstarch together, then melt the butter. Carefully fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, adding the butter at the end. Don’t mix too quickly or for too long, as you want to retain the air bubbles from the egg foam. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes. Only open the oven door and do the skewer test at the end of the baking time. The cake is ready when no more batter sticks to the surface and the surface is nice and elastic, so it’s ready. Remove from the oven, loosen the baking frame, turn out onto baking paper and let it cool completely. Once cooled, cut the cake in half crosswise and carefully set the top half aside. For the cream, mix the sugar, mascarpone and quark with about 5 tablespoons of Ramazzotti (to taste) until smooth and the sugar has dissolved. Whip the cream with the cream stiffener until stiff and then carefully fold it into the cream with a whisk. Mix the Ramazzotti with water and soak the bottom half of the cake with it (I spread a few teaspoons of the liquid over the batter) and then spread with a little less than half of the cream. Arrange the sponge fingers on the cream and spread with the soak. I use one teaspoon of liquid per sponge finger. The ratio of water to Ramazzotti can of course be adjusted depending on how strong you like it.  Then spread the remaining cream over the sponge fingers, soak the cut surface of the top half of the dough again and then place it on the cream with the soaked side down. The cake should now be refrigerated for a few hours. Meanwhile, make the buttercream: make a pudding from the starch (alternatively, a sachet of vanilla or cream pudding powder will of course also work), the sugar and the milk. Bring all but 6 tablespoons of the milk to the boil with the sugar, mix the starch with the remaining milk and stir into the hot milk. Turn off the heat and stir until the pudding is nice and creamy and thickened. Remove from the heat, stir in the Ramazzotti and cover with cling film to prevent a skin from forming on the pudding, then allow to cool completely. Cream the room-temperature butter until fluffy and stir in the pudding a tablespoon at a time. It is important that both the pudding and the butter are at room temperature, otherwise the cream will curdle. It’s best to prepare the pudding the day before and also take the butter out of the refrigerator the evening before. Cover the cooled cake gently with buttercream on all sides and refrigerate it again. Then you can decorate it as you wish: with fondant, without buttercream and with whipped cream, or—as I did—with a mirror glaze. This recipe and cake are dedicated to the Cocktailhouse in Munich. This is a 5th anniversary gift, a thank you for many wonderful evenings, and in joyful anticipation of all those yet to come.