Tuesday, May 5, 2009

TWD: Tiramisu Cake

There are those people who always order dessert when out at a restaurant. I am not one of those people. Why? Mostly because I'm cheap. I have a really hard time justifying the price of dessert, when I've already gorged myself on food and booze. I know, it doesn't really make sense to me either, but I can assure you that my hips are thankful. (Of course this doesn't mean that I don't go home and eat something sweet... because, oftentimes that's exactly what happens).

It's probably because of my frugality that I've never had tiramisu. It's always sounded like something delicious. The coffee, the ladyfingers... but, I'm generally not thrilled with pudding-type of desserts. Something about the consistency, I guess.

Which is why I thought this dessert was going to be a homerun for me. All the flavors of tiramisu... but in cake form! I mean, brilliant, right? That Dorie, she knows how to write a recipe, I tell ya.

This recipe was really easy, but called for two things that I never have: espresso powder and marscapone cheese. I decided to splurge the $5.99 on the marscapone and opted to make a Guinness syrup (I almost always have Guinness on hand) instead of the espresso syrup. The marscapone? Well, let's just say, for me... I'd prefer the tangyness of cream cheese. So, if I were to make this again, I'd just use cream cheese. The Guinness syrup turned out great, though.

Unfortunately, this cake just didn't do it for me. And, I've come to the conclusion, that it's not you, Tiramisu Cake, it's me. I think I've discovered that I just don't enjoy butter cakes. At least, all the butter cakes I've ever made. They always turn out spongy and dry for me. I really wanted this cake to be richer. But it was very light and kind of ho-hum to me.

If you like Tiramisu and butter cakes, then I urge you to check out the blogroll at Tuesdays with Dorie and grab the recipe from Megan's blog: My Baking Adventures. I think this cake would be hit with a lot of people. Sadly, it just didn't work out between us.