Tiramisu Cake With Espresso Italian Merengue Icing Or....
Decorating By Jopalis Updated 27 Dec 2006 , 8:38pm by aobodessa
Hi. I am making a tiramisu cake and want to either ice it with Espresso Italian Merengue or coffee flavored whipped cream icing. Can I do a basketweave and/or border like rope or shells with either? Or should I ice with one of them and then make my decorations (flowers, borders, etc.) out of regular butter cream? I want to do this week so if I can get your input that would be great!
IMBC will generally allow you to do some decorations; I have even made roses successfully with it. You shouldn't have a problem if you use an Espresso Italion Meringue. Just be careful not to spend too much time with your decorating bag in your hand as the heat from your hand will warm the butter in the icing too much and you'll be trying to pipe with an almost-liquid. Otherwise, it does pipe beautifully.
Good Luck!
Odessa
I don't see why you couldn't pipe basketweave with either one as long as they are the right consistancy. But if it's real whipped cream, it can easily soften from the heat of your hand ant then it won't hold it's shape very well. I have had no trouble at all piping with swiss and italian meringue buttercreams, but the whipped icing would be closer to a traditional tiramisu. HTH and didn't confuse you!
Amber
I just made coffee flavored smbc. I dissolved 1TBLSP espresso powder in 1TBSP water and beat it into the bc. If the flavor isn't strong enough you could add a bit more. I would be cautious of adding too much liquid b'c you don't want to thin your bc and I have had probs with the liquid blending in.
I dont know if this will help you much...but I made a Tiramisu Layer Cake for my MIL and the frosting was a whipped coffee flavored and it was really good! I am going to give you the recipes for the filling and frosting, maybe the filling will be stiff enough to pipe with!
Frosting..
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
2 Tbs. coffee flavored liqueuer(I used 2 Tbs. STRONG coffee using instant folgers, quick and easy)
Fillling...
1(8oz)container mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 Tbs. coffe flavored liqueur(Again used the instant strong coffee)
To make the filling...In a small bowl, using electic mixer set on low speed combine mascarpone, 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, and 2 Tbs. coffee liequeur(or stong coffee):beat just until smooth. cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
To make the frosting...
In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium high speed, beat the cream, 1/4 cup confectioners sugar, and 2 Tbs coffee liqueur (or strong coffee) until stiff.
Now for the filling...Fold 1/2 cup of cream mixture to the filling mixture.
These both tasted delicious and I have people who are begging me to make this cake for them to buy em from me. I would think that you could get the filling thick enough to pipe, but I have not tried it. Just wanted to give you some other options! Jen
Ohh and wanted to add that you could add cocoa to it also if you wanted to incorporate that flavor too!
I know I'm going to sound very stupid, but oh well.
What is instant espresso powder and where do you buy it? (Sorry, I don't drink coffee and my parents only by the ground stuff they put in their boiling water. . .not really coffee-literate
)
I had an AWFUL time trying to find it myself a few years ago. Now, I just go to the King Arthur Flour website (www.kingarthurflour.com, I think) and order it from them. Comes in a plastic jar and very worth the price.
On a previous post from jamiesue, she wrote: I just made coffee flavored smbc. I dissolved 1TBLSP espresso powder in 1TBSP water and beat it into the bc. If the flavor isn't strong enough you could add a bit more. I would be cautious of adding too much liquid b'c you don't want to thin your bc and I have had probs with the liquid blending in. Let me say this: if you are using the Mousseline Buttercream from "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum, she uses an eau-de-vie (i.e., liquor) at the very end of the beating process. I rarely use it, but if I were making that type of buttercream (which is basically an italian or swiss meringue ... I can never remember which one uses whites only) and wanted it to be coffee-flavored, I would use Kahlua (or other coffee-flavored liquor) to make the coffee flavor come out. If you don't think that straight Kahlua would be quite strong enough, then mix about 1 Tablespoon of espresso powder into your Kahlua until it is dissolved and then add it to your buttercream. I think this would work quite well.
Hope this helps,
Odessa
Odessa- swiss and italian meringue buttercreams BOTH use whites only- the french buttercream has yolks. And you're right about Kahlua or other coffee liqueurs not giving the icings enough coffee flavor- I always use a coffe paste (called creme de bahia) that I get from a bakery supplier or instant espresso powder.
Depending on the part of the country you're in, you might be able to get instant espresso in the grocery store- I used to get it in florida under the "Cafe Bustelo" label- it comes in jars with bright yellow labels with red and blue graphics. Much cheaper than the king arthur ( www.bakerscatalogue.com ) stuff, but not ground as finely. If you can't get it, you can use any instant coffee or even make your own coffee concentrate by boiling down some brewed coffee. HTH!
Amber
Odessa- swiss and italian meringue buttercreams BOTH use whites only- the french buttercream has yolks. And you're right about Kahlua or other coffee liqueurs not giving the icings enough coffee flavor- I always use a coffe paste (called creme de bahia) that I get from a bakery supplier or instant espresso powder.
Depending on the part of the country you're in, you might be able to get instant espresso in the grocery store- I used to get it in florida under the "Cafe Bustelo" label- it comes in jars with bright yellow labels with red and blue graphics. Much cheaper than the king arthur ( www.bakerscatalogue.com ) stuff, but not ground as finely. If you can't get it, you can use any instant coffee or even make your own coffee concentrate by boiling down some brewed coffee. HTH!
Amber
Amber, thank you. Even this old dog who's been baking for 44+ years can learn a new trick or two! I am in mid-Michigan and no one around here had heard of "instant espresso powder" when I first started seeing it in recipes that I wanted to try. Problem was, even back then, there was no mention of how to "fake" it if you couldn't get the product, so I quit trying to find it. Then one day I saw it in KAF catalog and bought some. Now I make a French Vanilla Espresso cake that is really yummy and I couldnt' do it without the powder.
And thanks for the reminder about meringue icings (italian/swiss/french). I prefer the one I use from The Cake Bible, but everyone has a different mouth, so whatever works for the cake is what I will use. I guess I'm too busy making people happy to remember which icing is which. 
Happy Baking,
Odessa
I'm in Michigan too- just south of Kalamazoo! Since I moved here I have to order my espresso powder as well- bummer. At least it's good quality!
You're so right about everyone having a different mouth....I try not to look down on anyone because their tastes differ from mine- I'm an all butter smbc and scratch only gal, but plenty of people that I love dearly wouldn't dream of having cake unless it says betty crocker on the box and the "buttercream" is made with powdered sugar and shortening. Different strokes!
Amber
I'm in Michigan too- just south of Kalamazoo! Since I moved here I have to order my espresso powder as well- bummer. At least it's good quality!
You're so right about everyone having a different mouth....I try not to look down on anyone because their tastes differ from mine- I'm an all butter smbc and scratch only gal, but plenty of people that I love dearly wouldn't dream of having cake unless it says betty crocker on the box and the "buttercream" is made with powdered sugar and shortening. Different strokes!
Amber
Amber, I know lots of folks like that, too. Maybe it's something in our Great Lakes water????
Odessa
Not having traveled much, I wouldn't know, but aren't there any Italian grocery stores in the area? Even a vegetable/fruit store might have some Italian products like coffee/espresso. I know that since I moved to NJ from Brooklyn, the number of Italian grocers has dropped dramatically, but there are still a few here. I can't imagine a place that doesn't have any.
Got my espresso powder when I went to visit my Italian in-laws in Brooklyn! I am in a suburb of L.A. I may run across it somewhere some time. I haven't tried the merengue icings. They seem a bit more scary to me.... with the candy thermometer and not hitting the beaters, etc. etc. I bet it is yummy though and will try it. Right now though I need to do a cake for guests and am hoping the whipped cream bc will be more palatable to my hubby. We didn't like the all shortening bc from my Wilton classes and then I tried 1/2 butter and he didn't like it much better. I think he would prefer a less greasy icing. He swears all those Italian bakeries in Brooklyn use cream.... I dunno....
Then you can't imagine most of Michigan!
Amber
True, true, true!!! There are middle eastern (i.e., lebanese-type) markets in the Detroit 'burbs, but that's about 2+ hours from me. Where I live in Michigan, it's pretty Wonder-bread white!!! haha
Just means that I can't even get mascarpone cheese, so lots of things I really want to try I'm not able to unless I'm mail-ordering. 
so sad.
That's one thing this Internet is good for, though.
Odessa
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