Tiramisu- the "Lift Me Up" Cake

Yesterday was a day of thanksgiving since I turned one year older. Somebody asked what my prayer was for the entire day, and I thought that what I was really saying since the morning offering and the Holy Mass was, "Señor, gracias, perdon y ayudame mas", or in English, "Lord, thank you, forgive me, and help me more". I learned those words from the former prelate of Opus Dei, Fr. Alvaro del Portillo, a holy priest who died in 1994 and whose process of beatification is on its way. Like other birthday celebrants I got overwhelmed with the greetings that were posted on my wall in Facebook and all the text messages. I think that the up side of technology is that people have become more human - another reason to give thanks to God.

I met with my Wednesday ladies in Makati for a simple birthday lunch. There were other celebrations a few days ago but the one that I would like to feature is the queen of all the birthday cakes. This one is the TIRAMISU CAKE that we prepared for dinner. I bought the ingredients which was asked by our cook whom we fondly call "Marmie" (from the movie "Little Women"). Tiramisu literally means "Lift me up" because of the strong ingredients that could keep you awake. These are: coffee, chocolate, wine, cheese and sugar. Since I know coffee would keep me up if taken in the evening, I bought decaffeinated coffee instead. But the recipe that I followed came from this site. Click here.

Take note of the substitutions that we made: instead of espresso coffee, decaffeinated one; instead of mascarpone cheese, plain cream cheese; instead of marsala wine, plain tanduay rhum. And we slightly cooked the eggyolks because of salmonella scare.

You could jazz up the presentation like what we did. You could serve it in its original round cake with cut up chocolates and mint leaves especially if it will be served for the birthday celebrant (cf. cake with candles on top).

Or you could serve it in water goblets with choco pretzels on top, and still with mint leaves.
Or, if your diners are figure-conscious, you could use small ramekins and still top it with another form of chocolate and still those mint leaves.
So now you know what cake to take if you want your guests to be awake and alive. If I remember right from a class I attended more than 15 years ago, Tiramisu cakes also make people happy. So, if you are looking for a cake that shows so many details and at the same time makes people feel good, try this cake.
Thanks for everyone who made the day even more special.