Tiramisu Cake with Chocolate Macarons!

Somehow...

The day after Halloween signals the start of the holiday season for me. It's like there's an imaginary green light that flashes on November 1st that says: GO!! EAT ALL THE SWEETS. Well, right on November 1st which was a Saturday, my family and I got invited to a dinner party, and of course I felt like baking a little something and bringing it along. (Yes, I'm still stuck in that Macaron phase if anyone can't tell)

So, after half an hour of browsing Pinterest for some ideas, I found a really easy recipe for Tiramisu.. but then I decided against it because I actually didn't have the right platter that you would serve a Tiramisu in. So instead, I thought: how about a Tiramisu flavored cake?? And  I just had to include macarons in there even if they didn't fit in but oh well I can't really get enough of those little guys.

I started out with my go-to cake recipe and just added a little bit of instant coffee to give it a little bit of that mocha flavor. When that was baked and cooled, I poked holes into the cake layers (I made 2 circular layers) with a skewer and poured coffee onto the cake so that they could gain some moisture. Then, I put a generous layer of the traditional Tiramisu mascarpone filling in between the two layers of cake. To top it off, I frosted the entire cake and to really top it off, chocolate macarons with vanilla buttercream! Around the cake I placed little lady fingers and dusted the entire cake with some cocoa powder. Voila! Coffee goodness. 

Here is my recipe and tutorial for macarons!

Tiramisu Cake Recipe

makes 2 10" cakes

Ingredients for cake

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups white granulated sugar
• 3 cups white all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons instant coffee
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 cup coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Ingredients for Mascarpone filling

• 8 oz mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 confectioner's sugar
• 2 tablespoons coffee

Ingredients for cake frosting

• 2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 tablespoon coffee

Step-by-step tutorial:

1. In a mixing bowl or a stand mixer, whisk the 4 eggs until very foamy, then add sugar and vanilla extract and mix.
2. Add in the oil and coffee, and mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients until they are evenly distributed with eachother, then add into the wet mixture and gently mix until just combined. Don't overmix!
4. Preheat oven to 350 F, and grease and flour 2 cake pans, I used 2 circular ones. Equally divide the batter into both cake pans and put into the oven after it is pre-heated.
5. Bake both cakes for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 
6. When cakes are done baking, turn off oven and let the cakes cool for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes have passed, use a knife or spatula to go around the edge of the cake pan to loosen the cake from it's pan, so that it doesn't stick to the pan once the cake is completely cooled. You could also go ahead and take the cakes out of the pan and cool on a wire rack until completely cooled. 
7. Once, cooled and on a rack, poke holes all over the cake and pour coffee over the cakes so they could soak it up and become very moist.
8. To make the fillings that will go in between the two layers of cake, mix together the mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, and coffee until it is a smooth and creamy mixture. Then, go ahead and pile on that filling on the top of one cake. Smooth is out so that filling is evenly distributed all on the top of one cake. Carefully place the second cake right on top. It should basically be a sandwich of cake+filling+cake.
9. To make the frosting, whisk the COLD heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and coffee on high until it is like whipped cream. It will take a few minutes and is highly recommended to do this part with an electric whisk or stand mixer because by hand it will take a long long time. 
10. Once the frosting resembles a cream and is no longer liquid, frost the top and sides of the cake however you please! I just piled on the frosting onto the top of the cake and used a spatula to smooth it out and put it everywhere else.
11. Decorate however you want! I placed Lady Finger cookies all around the cake and also dusted the top with cocoa powder, then topped it off with macarons.