Tiramisu Trifle

This is a special post in participation with the Virtual Vegan Potluck. I’m excited to be one of over 100 bloggers from 14 different countries “bringing” you special treats today on World Vegan Day (did you know there was such a thing?). After reading this post, please stick around and check out some of the other great blogs participating!

I love whipped cream! I’ve told you before—I used to eat bowls of Redi Whip with chocolate chips for dessert. So when I switched to a plant based diet my whipped cream habit had to go. Until, that is, I discovered how to make coconut whipped cream! That opened all kinds of doors and I quickly went through a list of whipped cream recipes in my head. One of the ones I was most anxious to try was tiramisu.

I had a great recipe from the wife of the pastor who married my parents 37 years ago for a quick tiramisu and I thought that with a little finessing I could make it into a perfect vegan treat!

Once I tackled the whipped cream issue, I had to figure out what to do about the lady fingers, which are normally made with eggs. I used to buy premade lady fingers and making tiramisu was as simple as layering everything together. I started looking at recipes for lady fingers but they all required large amounts of eggs. So I changed gears a bit and found a birthday cake recipe from Chef Chloe
. It turned out to be delicious and I can’t wait to use it for celebratory cakes in the future! It also was a perfect fit for my tiramisu.

Ok, all ingredient issues are solved and it’s time to make and assemble! I decided to make my tiramisu in a trifle dish for a fancy presentation. However, this works just as well in a rectangular dish. You can adjust your assembly as you like. The most important thing is to get cake, whipped cream, Kahlua, espresso, and chocolate into your mouth in one bite! You can make this a day in advance to give the flavors a chance to meld together. The cake is yummier once all of the espresso and Kahlua soak in!  It does take a little bit of time to make all of the different components, but it is totally worth it.  This is a perfect special occasion dessert!

Happy baking!

Tiramisu Trifle
You will need:
Dark chocolate bar (I used one from Theo’s chocolate)

For the coconut whipped cream:
2 cans coconut milk (not light), refrigerated overnight, without any shaking
1/3 c powdered sugar
2 T Kahlua

Refrigerate the can of coconut milk overnight (pay attention to your can…some specify which end to open….put the end you will open facing up). Once chilled, carefully remove can without shaking it. Open the can and scoop the hardened coconut cream off the top, being careful to leave the thinner, more watery coconut milk in the can (you will use this in the awesome smoothie that you will now make tomorrow morning!). Put the coconut cream into your mixer (or in a bowl if you use a hand mixer) and begin to whip, slowly raising the speed to the highest setting. The cream will quickly start to thicken. Once it is starting to thicken, add the powdered sugar and kahlua. Whip it a few minutes longer. Put it into a container and into the fridge to firm up while you make the cake.

For the coffee mixture:
2 T instant espresso
2 T Kahlua
¾ c hot water

Dissolve espresso into hot water. Add Kahlua and stir. Set aside.

For the cake, adapted from Chloe’s Kitchen:
3 c all purpose flour
2 c sugar
2 t baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 ¾ non dairy milk (I used rice)
1 c canola oil
¼ c vinegar (I used apple cider, white works too)
1 T vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2-3 cake pans the same diameter as your trifle dish and line with parchment (3 will give you 6 thin layers, 2 will give you 4). Alternately, prepare cake in a large jelly roll pan, greased and lined, so that you can cut the cake into pieces when assembling the trifle.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In your mixer, beat together milk, canola oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Add vanilla bean seeds. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix, being careful not to over mix.

Fill each of the cake pans evenly with the batter. Bake for 26-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted towards the middle comes out clean with just a few crumbs. Cool the cakes completely.

Assembly:
For a trifle, cut each cake in half horizontally, so you are left with 6 thin cakes. You may need to trim some of the edges if your trifle dish tapers like mine does. If you choose to make your tiramisu in a rectangular pan, you can cut your cake in half (depending on height) and then into smaller pieces to fit.

Start by putting a scoop of whipped cream on the bottom and spreading it out. Just a thin layer is fine. Then place your first layer of cake on. Spread espresso Kahlua mixture over top of the cake using a pastry brush. Really saturate the cake, so that it gets moist and full of flavor. Add a layer of whipped cream (about a half inch should work—depending on the number of layers you have, you can do the math and figure out if you should layer ¼ each time, or 1/6, etc.). Now grate some of the chocolate bar over the whipped cream.

Now repeat until you have used all of your ingredients and filled your dish. On the top layer, make some extra fancy garnishes by using your vegetable peeler to scrape along the chocolate bar.

Cover your dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time (it tastes better after it’s sat for several hours, up to overnight). Make sure you don’t have any sliced onions or other fragrant things in the fridge or your tiramisu might absorb those flavors.

Be sure to let all of your guests take a look at your beautiful creation! Once you dig in things get a little messy—and super delicious!