pick-me-a-birthday-cake

Tiramisu which literally translates to "pick-me-up" in Italian is a popular cake/dessert i supposed? I pretty much love this dessert too, but not to go ga-ga over it. I saw HHB's post on her birthday cake which reminded me about this dessert which has been on my to-do list for more than a year!

Well, more like it was a promise to SJ that we would try making this together since it's a favorite cake. I felt really guilty upon seeing HHB's post but hey! her birthday's just round the corner, so what better way to make a tiramisu to..pick-her-up? haha..

And so, I set off to searching and consolidating some tiramisu recipes i've gathered and mind you, they were a bunch! There are variations as to how to make a tiramisu the simplest being just mixing some whipped cream with mascarpone cheese. The more complicated ones involved making Sabayon, which is also know as Zabaglione, which is actually egg yolks beated till pale and thick over a double boiler (to cook it). and of course, there's the "raw" option which is not to cook the eggs at all. Some use egg whites to make the cheese mixture lighter and others use whipped cream. With a variety and thousand and one methods staring at you certainly makes you spoilt for choice.

I ended up mixing and matching and putting together a recipe from various sources. Everything went well, except the coffee and liquor taste wasn't as evident as I would liked it to be =(( Also, my cheese mixture didn't seem as thick as those I viewed on the video. =X

I had a little extra leftover and made a really small cup of extra tiramisu. Having tasted a good tiramisu eons ago, I really couldn't recall how a tiramisu should taste like =X My worries were unfounded when my younger sister couldn't stop exclaiming how tasty it was! Well, is it because she hasn't tasted a real good tiramisu before? perhaps so!

I'm really terrible at cake decorating so I copied HHB's decoration. The strawberries i got were from US and my! the sizes were soooo uneven. I ended up picking the bigger ones and spaced them out. The korean strawberries are soo much better in terms of size, taste and fragrance. sigh..I was lazy to make chocoalte curls so I did it the usual tiramisu way, sprinkle some cocoa powder =p

More importantly was how Si Jie felt isn't it? Well, an sms from her mentioning she liked the look of the cake and it tasted good except the coffee taste could be stronger (which I totally agreed) was most comforting. But i heaved a sigh of relief when she mentioned that it does taste like a tiramisu.

Till I'm more satisfied with the recipe, will I post it up. If you're really dying for this little treat, you can just drop me an email for the recipe or simply, google it!

Lastly, Wishing Si Jie a very Happy Birthday and God Bless!