Birthday cake in Italian style ;)

Well, last days I went back in my memories to the time I spent in Italy, and there was a great opportunity to stay in Italian theme.

Italy is associated with lots of things, but the most- I think- is the food. Pizzas, pastas, wine, tiramisu and even more. I love Italian food especially for it's simplicity. You need only few thing to prepare a testy dish, but what's important, the ingredients you use must be the highest quality.

And then I have a very good friend and he invited me for his birthday party. A friend who also loves Italy but from diffrent perspective. As I said at the beginning Italy for everyone is associated with something else, and for Simon it is Alfa Romeo.

So,  as we both have a fondness for Italian stuff and a big celebration was approaching I came up with an idea to combine my passion for baking with Italian flavors. As we know any birthdays can not do without a birthday cake so let's make a cake for Simon.

Who knows what is the most well know Italian dessert ?? All right, I know that everone knows. The answer is - Tiramisu. But I won't make a classis tiramisu. I will combine the excellent, well-balanced taste of Italian cream with mascarpone with the sweetness and aroma of amaretto liqueure. Just to remind- The amaretto liquere is an alcoholic drink originating from Italy.

It has a sweet, slightly bitter taste, and it's made ​​from almonds. Sometimes in the production there are also used various herbs or vanilla flavor. And I used it to prepare an :

                                        AMARETTO CREAM CAKE

Ingredients:

 Amaretto mandelic sponge cake:

• 6 eggs (size M)
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 2/3 cup (100g) of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of potato flour
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 200 g amaretti cookies (Italian dry almond cookies)
The saturation for the sponge cake: 12 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur

 Preparation of the sponge cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C degrees. On the bottom of the cake pan (diameter 23 cm) put a puck from baking paper. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. In a bowl sift flour and potato flour, add the coffee and stir.
2.  Crush the amaretti cookies but put abut 10 pieces of for decoration.
3. In a clean bowl, place the egg whits and whisk for about 2 minutes until well frothy. Add in parts a spoon of sugar, mixing all the time. Mix it for a few minutes until the dough will be stiff and glossy. Still whisking add successively the egg yolks.
4. Add the sifted flour, preferably in three parts, each time mixing at minimum speed of the mixer the ingredients combine into a homogeneous mass without lumps of flour.
5.  Finally add the crushed biscuits and gently stir with a spoon.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan, put in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. After cooling cut the sponge cake into 3 tops.

The Cream:

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 egg white
• 5 tbsp icing sugar
• 650 g of mascarpone

                                                 To the yolks and whits add sugar andwhisk it for about 8-10 minutes,

                                                                      until the mixture is light and fluffy

In another bowl mix the mascarpone cheese (about a minute). Add the beated eggs and mix shortly on low speed of the mixer until smooth.

To assemble and dercoration:

1. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate or cake stand.
2.  Drizzle the sponge cake with amaretto liqueur, and spread 1/3 of the mascarpone cream. Repeat, finishing with the other sponges.
3.  To finish, spread a very thin layer of the mascarpone cream over the sides and top of the cake.
4. Decorate the sides od the cake with choclate crumbs, or as I did with chocolate sticks. On the top place the rest of amaretto cookies and sprinkle with cacao.
   ENJOY YOUR CAKE