NESCAFE CAKE
My entire childhood in a bite! That is what this deliciously rich and creamy dessert embodies. A super easy simplified Tiramisu that takes no time, and tastes - dare I say? - even better than the original.
INGREDIENTS
Biscuit base:
4 tablespoons Nescafe
2 cups boiling water
2 sleeves Digestive biscuits (or any tea biscuits)
Cream base:
560g cream cheese
1 and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
4 tablespoons of the cooled coffee mixture
Topping:
1 cup almonds
1 cup sugar
Cocoa powder for dusting, optional
PREPARATION
1. Mix Nescafe coffee powder with the boiling water, and then pour into a shallow baking dish and let it cool.
2. In a saucepan, add almonds and sugar over medium heat and leave for 10-12 minutes until the sugar browns and caramelizes. Once it starts caramelizing, you will want to stir it regularly so it doesn’t burn.
3. Place and spread over parchment paper and let it cool. It will become firm and form a candy brittle. Once it does, crush it into small pieces and set aside.
4. Using an electric mixer, in a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk until smooth.
5. Once completely smooth, add the heavy cream and vanilla extract and continue mixing until peaks form. You can go for soft peaks or stiff peaks, I prefer soft peaks because I like the cream to be slightly lighter in texture and not super firm. Then add the 4 tablespoons of coffee that you’ve allowed to cool.
6. Dip both sides of the biscuits in coffee, make sure you don’t leave it for more than a couple of seconds, and place on the serving dish of your choice. Form the first layer of biscuits dipped in coffee.
7. Then, spread a layer of cream, thickness of your choice. The thicker the better obviously.
8. Repeat process with the rest of the layers. I like to do up to 3 layers, with the last being a nice thick layer of whipped cream.
9. Sprinkle with crushed almond brittle and dust with cocoa powder, or you can skip steps 2 and 3 of making the almond brittle and simply dust with cocoa powder.
10. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving, or overnight. I recommend you cover with plastic wrap when you store in refrigerator as it allows the texture of the cream to stay soft and smooth for a longer period of time.
Notes:
You can play around with the ratio of biscuits to cream, if you like the taste and texture of biscuits more, then you can alternate with a double biscuit layer.
The preparation of the cream base in this way, gives it a similar consistency to a tiramisu, because of the cream cheese used. However, an easier method is to eliminate cream cheese and just mix the sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream and vanilla.
You can use ladyfingers instead of digestives or tea biscuits, but the flavor and texture of digestives is my favorite of the lot!
You can dust with powder and entirely skip the almond brittle, but this is how my mom always prepared the Nescafe cake, and I am now used to eating it with that deliciously sweet crunch, which is such a nice contrast to all the creaminess.
You can choose to use mascarpone instead of cream cheese.
You don’t specifically need to use Nescafe, any other brand will do.
