Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Tiramisu, Coffee and Friends



Tiramisu means "pick me up". http://www.joyofbaking.com/Tiramisu.html Coffee and tiramisu -- I'll have to be pulled back down to the ground today. But it's worth it once in a while to have great desert, coffee, and friendly conversation.




I thought today we needed a lighter subject but heavy desert. I invited friends over for coffee. I am going to try and make a tiramisu cake. I made it a few weeks ago and it came out really good. Since I am not a baker, that says a lot. I once tried to make an angel food cake (from scratch) and it flopped. I learned later that I should have used the electric beater not my own hand power. I'm not sure why I like to do things the hard way; I like to give myself extra challenges. When it comes to baking, I should just stick with the easy.



Speaking of easy, I found this recipe when I made the cake a few weeks ago. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tiramisu-Layer-Cake/Detail.aspx I highly recommend it. I would say it tastes heavenly but then that may imply that I've been to heaven and I haven't. It was dreamy; it was all fluffy and light for having cream cheese inside with a touch of coffee. If you get a chance to try this, please respond back and let me know if you agree. I had to buy coffee flavored liqueur the last time I made it. I get so nervous when I go the the alcohol aisle because I am a real novice when it comes to buying these items. I couldn't find something that said coffee liquor and almost bought Kaluha. I called my husband for help and of course he didn't pick up his cell. Then I spotted a big bottle that said coffee liqueur and it was a lot cheaper than the Kaluha. I texted my husband to ignore the message and bought the $6 bottle. So the cake was great but I have a lot of the coffee liqueur left and I wanted to share with my friends so I decided to make it again for them.



We'll see if I have any of that coffee stuff left and maybe I'll make it one more time for our church friends. That should make an interesting Wednesday night evening with everyone having caffeine.



I only wish I could share this with my PA/NJ friends. That is the only thing about moving 2000 miles away that is a bummer. I don't get to see or even talk with my friends nearly as much as I would like to.



However, I really like it here in AZ. Our weather is beautiful now. The temps this week finally went down to 79 degrees. Yeah! I'm thinking I need to buy my children some jeans and pants this weekend and get them out of their shorts. My goodness and it's already November.


I've made so many wonderful friends here in AZ. I enjoy getting together, swapping stories and just plain having a good time. Well, I've got to run and work on that cake. Please pray that it doesn't flop. My baking is not consistent so there is that possibility. If it turns out the way I would like it to, I'll take a picture and post it later today. Until then I hope you have a great day!
Here is a picture of my tiramisu. It tasted good and I even managed to mess up a step in preparing the cake. I can't believe that it was still edible. Usually when I make a baking mistake, I need to toss the whole thing out.