Tiramisu

Today is my mom's birthday! I decided that as a gift to her, I would make her favorite dessert...tiramisu. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of tiramisu because it has such as strong coffee flavor and I'm not keen on the bitter taste of coffee. However, I thought she would appreciate my taking the time to learn how to make her a yummy tiramisu especially for her birthday.

Traditionally, tiramisu is made with eggs, marscapone cheese, lady fingers, and espresso. Of course other variations exist that substitute heavy cream for the eggs or some sort of fruit for the espresso. After making this cake, I realized that the technique itself is not too difficult and I think I will attempt to try a non-traditional variation next time. Also, due to my brother's concern over the raw eggs, I think I will switch to using heavy cream in the filling. For one, it eliminates the possible health hazard; he was quite worried after being extensively taught in his food class about the dangers of raw eggs and salmonella. Also, I think that using cream will give it a fluffier texture and make it more smooth.

I'm glad my mom enjoyed her birthday cake but I think I will try and make a different flavor next time to see how it tastes. Online there were many interesting variations involving fruits such as strawberry or raspberry. Also, many people like to add a little bit of liquor to the espresso. I personally chose to forgo the liquor because it creates an even more bitter taste, but I'm sure that when paired with the right liquor it can heighten the espresso flavor and coffee fanatics would enjoy that.

Tiramisu
Note: I made this for a 9" cake pan but you can use pretty much any dish you desire. Just make sure to trim the ladyfingers so that they fit into your pan. For example, I had to trim my ladyfingers to make them short enough to not stand over the top of the pan.

• 500 g marscapone cheese
• 400 g ladyfingers (I actually used 1 1/2 packages but it depends how the lady fingers fit into your pan)
• 5 eggs, separated
• 125 g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 2 cups espresso, cooled
• Chocolate bar (dark or milk depending on your preference)
• Cocoa powder

1. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and set aside.
2. Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until creamy and pale yellow in color, almost white. 
3. Mix the marscapone cheese into the egg yolk and sugar mixture.
4. Fold the egg whites gently into the creamy mixture and mix lightly until evenly combined.
5. Lightly dip each side of the ladyfingers into the espresso and arrange around the bottom and sides of the pan. Make sure you don't soak them through, just a little dip to get them moist.
6. Spread half of the filling over the ladyfingers and then grate the chocolate over top.
7. Arrange the next layer of dipped ladyfingers and then spread the rest of the filling over top.
8. Grate the chocolate and then use a fine mesh sieve to dust cocoa powder over the top. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours to allow all of the flavors to come together.