Tiramisu Birthday Cake

The Carnivore and Fat Baby and I went to a birthday party this evening for my girlfriend Angie (shown above with her sister's brand new baby). She has recently come back from a month in Australia and we were treated to a great slide show of her trip. Her sister owns a Tea House there, so the photos of food were plentiful. My favorite was a shot of ice cream being served out a bowl made from citrus fruit (yum).

Angie's mother was in town from Minnesota and she put together a nice buffet of fruits, crackers and cheese. Fat Baby acted like a complete angel, even out past his bedtime, because he kept his mouth full of food the entire time.

The crowning glory of the night though was the TIRAMISU BIRTHDAY CAKE that Angie's mom made for her. I love this dessert to begin with, and Angie's mom knows her way around the kitchen (the last time she was in town I was still pregnant with Fat Baby, and she made us some carrot juice that I swear had the baby dancing in my tummy). Angie said that her mom really wanted to make an authentic tiramisu, but when they were searching for recipes, they were surprised to find out that tiramisu is not a historical Italian recipe, but rather one that was developed in the 1980's (who knew anything good came out of the eighties?). I was really surprised to hear it, because I first had tiramisu at a local Italian restaurant in the late eighties or early nineties, which would have been slightly more cutting edge than I would have thought.

I did a quick web search tonight and found this history along with this recipe. I will, without a doubt, be wanting to try my hand at this very soon. Lately I have been trying dessert recipes on the weekend, and I've already bought the ingredients to make an apple pie this weekend, so the tiramisu will, sadly, have to wait. Fat Baby nearly fought me for the last serving of the tiramisu tonight, and then he picked up the small paper plate and put it right against his face to lick it clean (embarassing but true). The Carnivore wasn't a big fan. On the way home, he said "the cake part was too wet." I explained that the whole point of tiramisu was the coffee-soaked ladyfingers, but he still didn't seem impressed.

I'm sure Fat Baby and I can finish an entire one by ourselves when I give the recipe a shot.