Tiramisu II Tutorial

I was on the Wilton forums a couple of weeks ago and stumbled on a thread about tiramisu. I've never even though about making tiramisu before so this was going to be a top priority dessert.

I made family dinner plans with a friend and I decided to make it easy. Pizza was on the dinner menu and since that was a phone call away, I decided I would bake us dessert. This was my opportunity to make tiramisu.

I had a look at a few different recipes for tiramisu, and as you know, I've been hooked on allrecipes.com lately. I found the recipe Tiramisu II by Christine and read all of the rave reviews. This was going to be the recipe!

First thing, I had to bake homemade lady fingers. I decided to use the Ladyfingers Tested Recipe by Stephanie Jaworski from JoyofBaking.com.

I'm still a novice when it comes to whipping egg whites (especially since I majorly fouled up the macarons) but I've been more confident with the success of the orange chiffon under my belt.  

The first batch baked up beautifully. I realized that I piped the ladyfingers too fat and too long (4" long and a good inch wide). I was a little skeptical with the amount of ladyfingers so I immediately baked another recipe.

The second batch were short and skinny (2 1/2" - 3" long and 1/2 inch wide). I tried surrounding the outside of the cheesecake pan with them initially but soon realized that I was going to need the entire second batch to do this. I looked back to the first batch of ladyfingers and thought I'd cut them in half to place around the pan. This worked out perfect.

I also decided to spike my whipping cream with instant coffee, Starbucks VIA to be exact.

The ladyfingers were soaked with freshly brewed coffee and Kaluha (I doubled the recipe as suggested by a few of the reviewers). 

FYI, I decided to go with Kahlua because I walked up and down the rum section at the liquor store with no idea which one to purchase. The prices ranged from $15 - $89 and I'm not a rum connoisseur of any sort. There was a mini Kalhua bottle for $10 at the checkout, and it states that it's rum and a coffee flavored liqueur on the bottle, so that was my ultimate decision.

I feel there's something unsettling about putting the layers together and not seeing the end result until serving. I had no idea how this was going to turn out...

I'm happy to share that I was thrilled with both recipe selections and added coffee flavors - my guests also had rave reviews and even had seconds! 

I served the few extra ladyfingers to the kids which they had with fresh berries and marshmallows. 

Everyone was happy.