That's 'licious, Mommy!: Tiramisu Fake Out

"Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table."

- William Powell

Plain and simple, I love to cook - it doesn't matter what it is. Cooking is part of my soul. I like to try new recipes, I collect cookbooks, I am not afraid to try my hand at something completely off-the-wall, and I especially love trying to recreate my favorite dishes in new (easier) ways. Dessert is probably where my mom and I flex our culinary talents the most. We dabble in chocolate, cake, pie, sauces, cookies, brownies, ice cream...in other words, just about everything. So, calling dessert the most important stage of the meal is not an exaggeration. In fact it may be an understatement for us. Because we do dessert so well, we are extraordinarily picky about restaurant desserts. My favorite Italian dessert is Tiramisu. I always ordered it at Olive Garden, until one date night out with the hubs I ordered it and it was still frozen...yep, frozen. The hands-down best Tiramisu I have ever put in my mouth, hands-down best Italian food I've ever put in my mouth actually, comes from an Italian-American Restaurant/Pub in Lexington, KY called Suttons. Love. This. Place. Everything is handmade, including the Tiramisu, and it shows. For my birthday, we once invested in the very expensive ingredients to make a Tiramisu that used dessert wine. While it was delicious, at more than $50 for ingredients (10+ years ago), it wasn't exactly something we could make very often. Enter my fake out. I had some mascarpone cheese sitting in the fridge and didn't know what to do with it before it expired. After Googling easy Tiramisu desserts, I decided to just wing it. This is what I came up with.

Tiramisu Fake Out

1 angel food cake

6 oz Cool Whip

8 oz Cream Cheese, softened

Espresso roast coffee (Gevalia) prepared 3Tb coffee grounds to 16 oz water

1 tsp Cocoa powder + 1 tsp Espresso powder

1/4 cup sugar

*If you do not have espresso roast coffee, substitute regular coffee brewed at 5Tb coffee grounds to 16oz water

1. Slice angel food cake into pieces 1/2" thick x 2" wide x height-of-cake. Arrange single layer of cake pieces in bottom of glass dish. I used a Pyrex bowl with a lid.

2. Brew espresso. Pour it into a glass measuring cup as soon as it's brewed so it can cool off a little before you add it to the cream cheese.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Pour 1/2 cup of brewed espresso into cream cheese mixture and combine very carefully. It will splatter!!!

4. Pour about 1/3 of remaining espresso on first layer of cake in dish. Make sure you give it a few minutes to soak in good. If it is clear, like my glass dish, take a look at the bottoms of the pieces to make sure they have enough espresso soaked in so they are evenly saturated. If there are still white spots, pour some espresso down the sides and carefully press the pieces into the liquid so it will be absorbed.

5. While the espresso soaks in, fold the Cool Whip into cream cheese mixture. Layer 1/3 of mixture onto cake layer. *I somehow neglected to photograph the first layer of cream cheese filling, my apologies. However, there is an example from the next layer :)

6. Add another layer of cake, pour 1/2 of remaining espresso on top. Let it soak in a few minutes. Top with 1/2 of remaining cream cheese mixture.

7. Repeat cake, espresso, and cream cheese layer once more. You may have to cut some of the pieces in half thicknesswise so you have twice as many full size pieces of cake that are 1/4" thick. I had to do that as well as cut some pieces into triangles so I had an even covering of cake.