More Granado Espada-related recipes

How about something to munch on during the maintenance?

In this post, here are some recipes for the three cakes that play a minor role in the series of quests to obtain Lorch Furuholnen's character card: tiramisu, [layered] cheesecake, and Sachertorte.

In-game descriptions:

Tiramisu: A cake with two pieces of sponge layers soaked in espresso syrup and dusted with cocoa powder. Cheese and chocolate sauce oozes between the two layers.

Layered Cheesecake: A cheese cake that looks delicious. Its rich cheese flavor is tempting.

Sachertorte: A chocolate cake topped with maple syrup. Too sweet.

You can obtain these cakes from Lorch after successfully completing his "Road to Independence I" quest. They also serve as the trigger for the following quest, "A Secret Admirer", which involves Isabella the Cake Girl.

In the spirit of these two entries from Panfilo de Narvaez's cookbook [Pure White Food a.k.a. pasta alla carbonara; Percha Inzella a.k.a. pulpo gallego], let's take a brief look at these three cakes' history, and of course, their recipes!

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Tiramisu

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert typically made from sponge finger biscuits [or "lady finger" biscuits], espresso, mascarpone cheese, eggs, cream, sugar, Marsala wine, cocoa, and rum. According to some folk etymologies, the name of the dessert can mean either "pick-me-up" or "make me happy", because of its stimulant ingredients: caffeine [the cocoa and coffee], and alcohol [the Marsala and rum].

The cheese sauce/filling mentioned in the game may refer to the custard-type filling, which is called zabaglione. Actual tiramisu doesn't have a chocolate sauce; cocoa is instead sprinkled over the dessert in many versions.

A recipe for tiramisu

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Cheesecake

A cheesecake is a sweet, cheese-based dessert, with a crust and a filling usually composed of eggs, cream, and a soft cheese such as cream cheese. It can also be made with other cheeses such as ricotta, havarti, and quark cheese. Vanilla and chocolate can be added for flavor, and different fruits, such as strawberries and blueberries, can be used for topping. There are baked and "no-bake" versions.

There are clearly many variations on this dessert, but the one mentioned in-game comes very close to New York-style cheesecake, because it doesn't mention any other fillings, toppings or flavorings.

A recipe for New York-style cheesecake

A recipe for almost-no-bake cheesecake

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Sachertorte

Sachertorte is one of the most famous culinary specialties from the city of Vienna. Traditionally, it consists of two layers of dense, not-overly-sweet chocolate cake, with a thin layer of apricot jam filling in the middle, and covered by dark chocolate icing with shreds of chocolate on the top and sides. In Vienna, it's traditionally served with unsweetened whipped cream. The recipe for the "original" Sachertorte is kept secret by its place of origin, the Hotel Sacher.

The in-game version of this cake mentions maple syrup, a flavoring which is actually not part of the real Sachertorte.

A recipe for almost-authentic Sachertorte

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Hungry yet? ^^

It's interesting to note that of these three sweet foods, only Sachertorte is really a cake - tiramisu is a dessert, and cheesecake is actually a pie.

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Acknowledgments: Real-world information on the cakes comes from Wikipedia, while the recipes are from Epicurious.com.