tiramisu

After neglecting this blog for far too long, it's back to business! Starting off, this post of thank-you tiramisu cups, with custom stencilled names :)

I've never made tiramisu before, so this was rather intimidating. Something you can't bake or steam or boil or fry? Ahh. What makes it good is entirely down to the amount of $$$ you put into the ingredients. So, the full list: cream cheese, sour cream (very illjudged addition), Kahlua, freshly brewed coffee, imported ladyfingers from Italy (and outrageously priced as well). For a touch of sophistication, I worked on stencils for personalized cocoa powder art. I was going to add in fruits, but the selection was pretty bad, and the amount I paid just for the basic ingredients was enough to discourage me from paying an additional 20usd for fruits.

(Coffee courtesy of a dedicated 8 week sticker collection drive: since then, I've been brewing fresh coffee daily in my room. You can see the coffee brewer I use, which I bought from Vietnam)

Soaking the ladyfingers in a decadent mixture of black coffee and Kahlua

Assembling the soaked, broken up bits to form a cake layer at the bottom. Then I layered it with the cream mixture, and then another layer of cake, and cream. You top it off with bitter cocoa powder, and fresh fruits or chocolate shavings, or whatever strikes your fancy.

Cream mixture recipe:

1 part mascarpone cheese

1 part sour cream (please just replace w normal cream! or whipped whites!)

1/4 cup sugar

(Optional: Kahlua and coffee in an attempt to mask the sour tang of the sour cream)

On the bright side, the dessert does taste refreshing. I like sour things though, so I guess I'm totally biased. It comes across as a lemony-dessert with drunk coffee cake bits. Here come more pictures of the prep!

After adding the top later of cream, to make the cocoa art stand out you shoudl smoothen the surface with a spatula, clean the cup edges, etc. Reminded me of how restaurants plate dishes!