Daring Bakers: Tiramisu

 I've been reading food blogs for a few years now - and I have always enjoyed the baking and cooking clubs online- it's so much fun to see a bunch of people make the same thing - yet each creation is so unique and often turns out completely different than others.

  There are so many of these groups to choose from - Tuesdays with Dorie, Martha Stewart Cupcake club, the Daring Bakers and Cooks are a few of my favorites.  Only a few months into my own blog and I couldn't wait any longer to join in on the fun!  I decided on the Daring Bakers - since it is only once a month and I knew it would be a way to improve my baking skills and try new things.

  

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. 

So here is my first challenge:  Tiramisu!  Well, tiramisu is the finished product- you had to make your own mascarpone cheese (!), ladyfingers, zagablione (I never even knew what this was before this challenge), pastry cream, whipped cream and assemble the entire dessert - talk about a challenge - this was easily the most complicated dessert I've ever made!  It took five days to get everything made and chilled overnight before we actually ate it. But the end result was worth it - and it was so much FUN to make! 

I served this on Valentine's Day with my sister's family - my 2 year old niece is still talking about this cake weeks later - these are her exact words -  'Tine's Cake Yummy!' (she calls me 'tine and her yummy sounds like 'nummy') I love her so much!  

And she was right - this was yummy! 

Here is the proof – I followed the recipes exactly – the only substitution was using coffee in the zagablione in place of the marsala wine. 

The homemade mascarpone cheese…actually pretty easy to make

the homemade ladyfingers….so easy to make...they were perfect!

 

the pastry cream, zagablione and mascarpone…

The finished product from the side…mine made two layers...

the finished product from above…

drool worthy slice…

yummy…

just one more look for good measure….

I had so much fun with this months challenge – I can’t wait to see what next month brings!   Head over to Aparna and Deeba blogs for the recipes and thanks for hosting the challenge this month!
Check out other Daring Bakers Tiramisu's on the blogroll!