Virtual Vegan Potluck! Lemon curd tiramisu

December 13, 2014 by Margaux 31 Comments

Wahoo! Today is the 5th Virtual Vegan Potluck and I am beyond thrilled to be taking part. Each year I’ve been lurking from the shadows, swooning at all the beautiful and delicious looking creations, so I figured it was time to take part in the fun and festivities 😀 Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check out the bloggers who precede and follow me: The Conscientious Eater and The Lazy Vegan Baker. Thanks so much to Annie over at An Unrefined Vegan for hosting this wonderful shindig!

I was going back and forth in my mind about what dish I wanted to share for today’s spectacular event, so I ended up making lemon fig + chocolate pistachio baklava, lemon raspberry cake and a parfait (soon to be revealed!), but none of that was quite right. Finally I decided to make what I would want to see and eat after a lush meal, and so this trifle-esque tiramisu popped out at me. For the look of this dish I was inspired by Vegan Richa’s tiramisu trifles, which just seems heavenly. I didn’t want to bake my tiramisu in a big block, because I wanted to keep the portions small, so this worked out perfectly. Even if one of the secret themes for this VVP wasn’t lemons I’d still have included them somehow, because even after making super secret projects for the past two weeks I’m still stuck with over 30 lemons in my kitchen. Lemon curd, believe it or not, goes perfectly with coffee soaked cake, and that’s not just the caffeine addict in me having a say!

Lemon cake (makes 4 rounds, can serve 6 if sliced)

• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 4 TBSP lemon juice
• 3 tsp lemon flavouring
• 4 packets stevia/4 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP liquid sweetener of choice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Cinnamon and ginger powder to taste
• 2 tsp zest

How-to:

1. Preheat to 180C.
2. Mix the dry in a bowl, mix the wet in the other then add wet to dry.
3. Spray two loaf pans and pour in the mixture and spread thinly – it won’t fill up the entire of each of the loaf pans.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. Let cool for 15 – 20 minutes, then take a large cookie cutter and cut out 4 round slices.
6. Place in a tupperware in the freezer whilst you make your soaking liquid (this shouldn’t take too long – if you think you’re going to get distracted place it in the fridge).

Soaking liquid:

• 1/8  cup decaf coffee
• 1 tsp caramel extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Optional: alcohol of choice

 What next:

1. In a long shallow plate pour out the liquid and let your round cake slices sit for a few moments, then transfer back to the tupperware in the fridge to firm back up.

Chocolate date layer:

• 1/2 cup dates, soaked
• 1/8 cup boiling water
• 1.5 tsp decaf coffee
• 1 tsp caramel extract

How-to:

Blend until smooth, adding more water if necessary. Keep in fridge.

Other elements:

• 1 batch lemon curd
•  1/2 batch white bean frosting
• 1 carob nugget for grating

Assembly:

1. Layer one wheel of soaked cake at the bottom of your serving cups, followed by a generous slathering of the chocolate date paste.
2. Next 1/3 of your lemon curd per person, followed by another cake layer, topped with 1/2 a batch of white bean frosting each.
3. Add the rest of your lemon curd and grate some chocolate shavings over the white bean frosting.
4. Serve chilled.

OH MY GOODNESS! The cake…is sensational! So easy but YUM! It can easily just be a plain ol’ vanilla cake, being healthy and versatile, but the lemon…oh my. I overcooked this batch, but it’s the second (or third?) time I’ve made it in the last week so I can confirm that it is my new favourite. The dough is a bit more airy and almost whipped cream-y type in texture, which seems a bit weird for cake, but it condenses into a perfectly delicious, half crumbly, half short-cake type sensation, all with the zing of lemon in every bite.The best part of this dessert is that you can make it all beforehand and just store in the fridge already in the serving cups, ready to be eaten. Each element comes together really easily and all in all you’ll be done in less than half an hour, baking time including. You don’t necessarily have to chill it if you’re going to be uber decadent and add ice-cream or what to the side, but chilled just adds that extra layer of thoughtfulness and brings all the ingredients to crispy clarity in terms of texture and taste.

Man-thing polished off two within the space of an hour and would probably have eaten more if I’d had any lying around! He gives this his official Man-thing seal of approval, which is high praise for him. It may have something to do with the chocolate shavings, because he really is that easy to amuse in terms of food. :p

So there you have it! A perfect treat that can be multiplied to feed many. It may even make a wonderful holiday dish, and you can easily throw in glace cherries and cashew cream to make it even more festive. If you use xylitol or another sweetener of choice (I used NuNaturals Stevia packets in places) then it’s a low-sugar option to feed diabetics whilst not compromising on the pudding front. :p