Tiramisu

My son turned thirty and for his birthday celebration I made Rose's Tiramisu.  It was easier than I thought.

Tiramisu is top on my list of desserts to try at Italian restaurants.  I have only attempted to make it once and it was a dismal failure.  It resembled more of a brick than a light dessert.  Rose's recipe surprised me with the addition of Marsala instead of rum but I liked the flavor very much.  I also like how it's added to the egg yolks while cooking so the alcohol cooks out.

I did not bake the Ladyfingers, although I still plan on giving them a try.  I was short on time and knew it was either the packaged version or it was not going to make the party.  As it was it didn't get the full six hours chill time but it was still very good.  It's even better setting over night.

Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake

I cheated.  This is Whole Foods pizza dough.  Whole Foods makes the best ready made pizza dough for under $2.00.  I didn't even hesitate when I spied it on the shelf.  It took me a nano second to rationalize that it could be turned into the dough for Flo Braker's Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake.  And it worked! I fully intend to use this dough for a great many more things other than pizza.

The cinnamon and cardamom kneaded into the dough easily.  I doubled the Butterscotch glaze and it bubbled out of the pan all over my oven so I wouldn't advise doing that again. Perhaps increasing it by half would be better. It's definitely a decadent cinnamon roll. Everyone loved it.

White Gold Passion Genoise

This is the last genoise in Rose's Heavenly Cakes on my To Do List. I'm two for two in requisite height and lack of flour balls.  It took the entire book but finally I no longer fear genoise.

The only source of frozen passion fruit puree in this town was at Whole Foods.  I neglected to notice it was in the form of a concentrate.  The curd and syrup came out way too strong because I did not realize I needed to follow Rose's special instructions for concentrate. The only way to tone it down was to turn the entire thing into a  fruit basket cake with bananas, peaches, nectarines,strawberries and mango sorbet, cutting the highly acidic flavor of the passion fruit.  With the hot hot hot weather we've been having I opted for a simple whipped cream topping instead of the heavier buttercream.  It turned out to be the best fruit basket cake any of us have ever had. In the future, I'll pare down the concentrate but still add bananas, mango and strawberries.  The combined flavors were just spectacular.