Tiramisu for Him! (an eggless recipe)

ubby's birthday is a very special occassion for me; the day he came to this world to be mine. The special day was last week. Like every year I wanted to make something special for him. Something sweet, something he totally loves and something that is exotic enough so it expressed my feelings by way of food. He has a sweet tooth so it had to be sweet. What would be fabulous and romantic at the same time, as I sat there thinking, only one sight kept coming over and over in my head, yes you guessed it, Tiramisu!

Tiramisu literally means 'Pick me up' in Italian. Isn't the name enough, do you need a dessert to sound any more romantic. But thats not all, as you dip into it, you feel the creaminess as you cut through the layers of cream and the soft texture of the coffee soaked lady fingers. It just feels exotic and you cannot resist taking that first bite. Thats when you taste the sweet exotic creaminess combined with the slight bready texture that completely melts in your mouth. Your fork is ready to go again and before you know it your plate it clean and you are wondering 'should I get some more?'

For me the added bonus besides the fact that hubby totally admires this was that this is probably the only the sweet preparation I make that my little princess never says no to when asked it she wanted some. She can have a big piece of it every few hours. The first time I attempted Tiramisu was actually more due to need than want. A few months back, it was my little princess' birthday. I was planning on baking a cake. The oven was not looking its best so I decided I'd put it on the cleaning cycle before baking. Murphy's law at its best - after a couple of hours of 'cleaning' the oven died completely - the repair tech later told me the heat fried the control chip or something, hey I'm no expert on these things but I do know enough to believe that when an oven has a cleaning cycle, it should 'clean' rather then fry itself. Anyways... back to the story, now tasked with making a cake with the minor inconvenience of not having an oven, thus came the idea of making Tiramisu that looked like a cake.

You might think this would require a lot of work to make. On the contrary it is in-fact quite easy to put together, and here's the kicker, it requires no cooking or baking, just assembly. To add to all that, this recipe is an eggless version. We loved Tiramisu when we ate at our local Italian restaurants but the thought of raw eggs in it was a little off putting. So this recipe is a total win-win. Traditionally this recipe calls for mascarpone cheese but I prefer it this way with cream cheese instead as mascarpone is not readily available everywhere and is a little pricey too. Moreover it tastes the same, if not better.

Ingredients:
Cream Cheese ............................ 2 ~8 oz packs at room temp (I use Philadelphia brand)
Paneer or Ricotta cheese .............. 1/2 cup mashed (drain the ricotta)
Powdered Sugar ......................... 8-10 tbsp (or to taste)
Whipped Cream .......................... 2 cups  or 16 oz Cool whip
Strong Coffee ............................ 1 1/2 cup (or as needed) (just heat water with 3-4 tsp instant coffe, let it cool)
Lady Fingers .............................. 2 pack or as needed
Cocoa powder, powdered sugar ....... for dusting
Coffee beans, chocolate for garnish

Method:
1. In a large, preferably cold bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream with 2 tbsp powdered  sugar till fluffy and light.

2. In another bowl, beat cream cheese for a minute, add ricotta/paneer with powdered sugar and beat until everything blends well and it becomes creamy and fluffy.
3. Add about 4-5 tbsp of the prepared coffee into the mixture and mix well.
4. Fold Whipped Cream into cream cheese mixture until well incorporated.
5. To make the cake wall decoration, cut the tip off from the lady finger and arrange it vertically along the edges of the cake pan (flat end down). It is recommended to use a spring-form cake pan which makes it easy to get the cake out.

6. Soak each lady finger into the coffee (for a couple of seconds on each side) and place  evenly on the bottom of the cake pan until completely covered.
7. Spread half of the cream cheese filling evenly on top of the fingers.
8. Repeat with another layer of coffee dipped fingers.
9. Top with remaining filling.
10. Sprinkle cocoa powder over the top to form a coating. Refrigerate overnight to set.
11. When serving, dust with little powdered sugar and cocoa. ENJOY!

Notes:
1. Keep the left over cake refrigerated.
2. Although I have never tried but you can use mascarpone cheese in place of the cream cheese. 
3. I haven't use rum either but if you wish, mix about 3-4 tbsp Rum in the coffee mixture in which you will soak the ladyfingers.
4. While taking it out of the pan if you feel like cake has not set yet, keep in the refrigerator for a little longer.

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