Italian Tiramisu

Every year for my Grandmother's birthday, I make her Tiramisu for a birthday cake. She adores it and always orders it when we when go to Olive Garden. I personally can't stand the stuff. I don't like the taste of coffee and Tiramisu just doesn't do anything for me.

Normal Tiramisu is made with mascarpone, ladyfingers and rum. I don't use any of these ingredients. Half of them I can't find and the other half are WAY out of my college budget. It really doesn't matter, unless you are the Type A perfectionist. It all tastes the same.

The goods:
 6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 packages cream cheese
 1 & 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup strong coffee, chilled
2 packages pound cake (you can even use two vanilla loaf cakes from the Walmart bakery)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking cocoa

The details:
1. In a large saucepan, beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed. Whisk in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from heat and pour into a medium bowl. Wrap the top with plastic wrap of the custard mixture and leave in the refrigerator for about an hour to an hour and a half.
 2. Cut cream cheese into small pieces and mix in with the custard until smooth.
 3. In a mixing bowl, beat whipping cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
 4. Layer one pound cake on the bottom of an 11 X 7 baking dish. Brush with chilled coffee (I saturate the pound cake, it increases the flavor). Spread half of the custard mixture over the pound cake, repeat with half the whipped cream.
 5. Repeat Step 4. so that there are two layers of the pound cake, custard and whipped cream. Sprinkle the second whipped cream layer with baking cocoa. Chill for about an hour, this allows all the flavors to mix in with one another and make a more flavorful dessert.

 This is a great dessert for summer! It is light, airy and doesn't sit heavy on your stomach. Especially in North Carolina when a heavy stomach in the summer is just miserable. I have to say, this time around, this Tiramisu was pretty tasty =)