The Sun is Shining.. the Sky is Clear.. and I'm Making Tiramisu !

It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine can do to you! It inspires you and gives you energy to do wonderful things! The wonderful thing I did last week was Tiramisu. It was a beautiful day. Gorgeous fluffy clouds, silky blue skies and a lovely cool breeze. I opened the kitchen door and let the backyard sunshine do it's wonders!




Before I made my first Tiramisu cake, I would always imagine it to be the complicated Italian cake that only gourmet chefs are capable of making! But it turned out to be "a piece of cake"!!
To be honest, this is my mother's recipe. The original recipe's main ingredient was Mascarpone cheese. But my mother uses whipping cream instead.


Although this blog is all about baking, Tiramisu has nothing to do with that! The cake layer is actually Ladyfinger biscuits. You can find them at any supermarket. They come in packs.
With no baking involved.. this cake is really easy to make.



You start off by by making the custard, it needs time to cool off. It was the most boring part. I had to keep stirring the eggs, they would turn to sweet omelet if I didn't!!
I was stirring the eggs in a bowl placed on top of a larg pot with boiling water inside, it was really high! So you can imagine how I looked like, with my arm stretched over my head like a little girl helping mommy in the kitchen. The eggs laughed at me!!! So I thought why not stand on a chair? It made it so much easier!! *Take that eggs!!! mwahahahah!!*

Ooohh I'm in heaven!!

Look at em'!! All neat and ladylike!!!

Now comes the best part!! Lining the ladyfingers in the glass pyrex, with a layer of custard and whipping cream.. *what whipping cream?? Opppss!!! I'm sorry!!* (licks fingers and smiles in guilt)



Ingredients

4 tbs instant coffee
4 cups boiling water
4 tbs sugar
6 large eggs (egg yoke only)
1 cup sugar
1 and a half tsp Irish cream flavoring (or syrup)
3 tsp vanilla
1.5 liters of heavy whipping cream
Half a cup cocoa powder
ladyfingers!


Method

1- In a medium bowl, add four tbs of instant coffee and four tbs of sugar, add boiling water, mix and leave to cool.

2- With an electric beater, whip the cream until its thick yet still smooth. Place in refrigerator to cool.

3- In a medium stainless steal bowl, separate egg yoke from egg whites, add two cups of sugar to the egg yoke and beat with a fork. Add vanilla and Irish cream flavoring.

4- Place water in a large pot, and bring to boil. When water starts boiling, place the stainless steal bowl with egg yoke on top. Reduce heat to medium and make sure boiling water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl.
Keep stirring eggs and sugar for about ten minutes, or until mixture is thick and sticky.
It is really important that you keep stirring, or your eggs would turn into an omelet!

5- When custard is completely cooled down, mix it in with the whipping cream. Be careful when mixing, you want your whipping cream nice and fluffy.

6- In a shallow bowl, pour some of the coffee. Bring your ladyfingers and dip them in the coffee. Make sure not to soak them, or your cake would turn out really mushy and pudding-like.

7- Place your ladyfingers side-by-side in your glass pyrex. Now you have your first layer. With a large spoon, add as much whipping cream and custard as you can, and make it even. You can make up to four layers of ladyfingers and whipping cream, depends on the size of your pyrex and how much ladyfingers and whipping cream you have. I made three layers.

8- Leave in fridge overnight. Before serving, sift cocoa powder on top of cake until it is completely covered.

And there you have it!! Enjoy!!

As the Syrians say.. sahteen w hana!






All photos by Mariam