Saturday, August 30, 2014

Tiramisu and book reveal!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and it's so good to see you all! My break from YBC flew by and although I didn't get as much done as I wanted on my new book, I did do a lot of cooking, a lot of visiting, a lot of relaxing, and  some traveling. I had guests from out of town, out of the country and some I hadn't seen in twenty years. I wrote blog posts (including one for a hero who has initials HH, squee!), caught up on my e-mail and got a big start on a brand new series. In all, it's GOOD TO BE BACK!
But first... a book reveal. :) The dedication to my last Love Inspired book, for my friends Mike and Terri Neal, who give their hearts so freely to children in need.

I love me a box o' books!
So, let's make a celebration cake! I've always wanted to make tiramisu but was afraid to try. I wanted it to be fabulous! (Stop groaning. We all know how this is going to end.)
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Okay, the eggs.... My pretty farm eggs! I love my Americuna chickens!
I made two cakes. A friend was having a birthday. Anyway, here are 12 yolks. Can you tell the store-bought eggs? They're the lighter ones!
 The first part is a standard pudding type recipe. Mmmmm. So hard not to eat it straight out of the pan!  So, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it boils. Boil  for 1 minute, then take it off the stove.  Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.
Meanwhile, we'll start on the cake. We cheated and used a box (Mostly because my daughter had a feeling this was going to fail if we had too many variables.) So, parchment paper for the bottom of the pan. Pour in the pound cake. Cook according to instructions.
When it's done, flip it over and peel it off. Now, in a medium bowl, beat the heavy cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth. I have no idea why I don't have a picture of this. I swear it has nothing to do with the next photo.
 You'll have some delicious whipped cream (do not eat!) and some amazing marscapone with custard (do not eat!).
When we we are the beach, I found these little bottle of liquor at the store. how cute! Here, they give you the five gallon size. Who needs that? You're supposed to mix this with the coffee and drizzle on the cake, but the kids protested. So it never made it in the cake. Some day it will probably make its way into my coffee. Some day soon.
Mmmmmm, coffee drizzles pound cake. I want to eat it right now!! Take both coffee soaked layers and put them side by side (not across the kitchen like I did, so I dripped goop on my nice clean floor). Layer the first slice with marscapone custard, then a layer of whipped topping. Gently lay on the second layer. (GENTLYYYYY!!) Put the second of half of the marscapone custard on top, then the second half of the whipped topping. It looks a little wobbly.
So, we never did find lady fingers at our store. A friend offered to send me some all the way from Portland. Isn't that sweet! I love cooking pals! But in the end, my kids wanted to use pirouette cookies.
But now we're going to put on the pirouette cookies. (Usually this would be the rest of the lady fingers.)
Decorate with fresh fruit!
Layer fresh fruit on top... This can be chilled another few hours or eaten immediately. Of course we ate it! In our defense, we had guests coming over. But we'd probably have eaten it at midnight. It was amazzzziiiiiiing!

 OK, my friends, I hope you enjoyed the fabulousness that is tiramisu and I'll see you all again next weekend!

26 comments:

  1. That cake looks delicious. Oh my. I may just have to make this one. The fruit in the middle looks amazing. And congrats on your latest Love Inspired book. Even more congratulations on your new series. Yippee.

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    1. Thank you!! It's so very exciting! I forgot how wonderful it is to know I can write ANYTHING I WANT. Lol. This series is set in Cane River region of Louisiana, so that means I'll have to eat a whole bunch of Cajun food to prepare myself. I'll call it research!!

      And I just have to say, one more time, how AMAZING it is to see your series at the top of the top. You have done a fabulous job of bringing that romance series to life, and readers are eating it up. Doing the wave here in Oregon!!

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    2. Yay Belle!! Congrats on the bestselling series! I just checked it out. Woo hoo!

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  2. Congrats on getting caught up (at least partly). :) And on your new release!

    YUM. I love tiramisu!! Thanks for sharing this recipe with a twist.

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  3. I don't like the coffee taste :-( I would aggravate you by grabbing the pirouette cookies and fruit LOL! glad you finally got to make it though - I remember you talking about wanting to do this recipe a while back! Susanna

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    1. I loved the coffee, but still wonder about the Kahlua. I should make an adult version. But since it didn't cook, I was afraid to add it in and then feed it to the kids. LOL

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  4. My Italian grandmother is rolling over in her grave. That is the most unique tiramisu I have ever seen. Pass me a large piece, please and thank you.

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    1. HAHAHA! I have so many Italian friends here. I'm getting a lot of grief about this cake. It's a cake, you know, and not a tiramisu. One even told me it was a trifle and just drop the accent.

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  5. I'm dying laughing, but so proud that you have friends! Good for you!!!!!

    I make tiramisu and it's kind of a fun pain in the neck, but the good thing about it is that it keeps beautifully for days. (this will not be an issue in your house, Senora!!!!)

    I make sponge cake similar to the recipe you'd sent me for the Tres Leches cakes last year, Virginia and that soaks up the coffee and rum wonderfully. I never thought of using Kahlua..... I think tiramisu is like the tres leches cakes. No matter who you talk to (especially my Italian buddies and Holdout Tina Russo Radcliffe has STILL NOT GIVEN me the chocolate spice cookie recipe from her mother, it's like an ancient Italian from the catacombs secret or something that might topple the Vatican if REVEALED TO MERE MORTALS....but I'm not bitter, oh no.

    Not in the least.

    Anyway, back to tiramisu, everyone I talk to about it, is convinced theirs is the Real Deal. The One. It's really funny because I've never talked to an Celt who said "My Shepherd's Pie is the AUTHENTIC RECIPE!!!!" They're like, hey, you brown some ground beef, add some nice onion, chopped up, some seasoning, don't forget a little ketchup and worcestershire sauce, then pile it into a pan, top it with mashed potatoes and then maybe cheese if you want and smother it with veggies.

    Than bake it for a while.

    The Irish and Scots are soooooo easy going about food. It might be Guiness, I'm not sure, but I don't have any Irish friends who hide their cookie recipes!!!!! None!!!!!

    I'm just mentioning this because we are heading into fall, which means Christmas and Cookies Freeze Well.

    What was this post about again???????/

    :)

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    1. Well of course it's the Guinness. Besides they only have ONE recipe in those countries. One recipe for the entire country. HA.

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    2. One little recipe, Tina..... One itty bitty teeny weeny recipe for a friend. The Earth won't crumble, the sky won't fall, and who knows???? It might tip me over the edge to TOTAL WORLD COOKIE DOMINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Huzzah!!! Huzzah!!!!!! :)

      I'm going to Google them and find a reasonable facsimile one of these days. I bet the facebook peeps will take pity on my poor, plump, hungry self!!!

      :)

      And hey, we Irish have two recipes. Shepherd's pie.... and Guinness. TWO RECIPES, TEEEEENA.

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    3. Blogggerrrrrrrr. Ate my comment.

      Anyway, my friend Stacey had a German apple cake she would bring to all my parties, let us weep with joy as we ate it, then deny us the deets. It became A THING. I think she made it five times as often, just to stick it to me.

      Then one Christmas, after five years of begging, I opened my Christmas card and found THE RECIPE.

      Which I then immediately put up on Yankee Belle Café. I'm not proud of it. But I blame the fact she moved to Montana a few weeks before and I was feeling abandoned and bitter.

      Also, I knew it was a 27 hour drive back to my house so I was pretty safe.

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    4. And because she's not here right now, I'll post it again. http://yankeebellecafe.blogspot.com/2012/10/shhhhhh-this-recipe-is-secret.html

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    5. I've made that apple cake after you so naughtily posted it!!! DEEEELICIOUS!!!!! I've started a facebook campaign to develop a great chocolate spice cookie recipe for my wedding trilogy. At least one book must have an Italian cookie cake, right???? So delicious. There is safety in distance, for sure!

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  6. The book! I love the book! Oh how stinkin' nice is the cover and inside??? Oh, inside is yet another Virginia Carmichael bit of wonderfulness at a fantabulous price, I'm PSYCHED!!!!!!!! Oh, happy day! Lovely, Virginia, you did a book without snow!!!!!!! I'm singin' Joy to the World just looking at it, LOL!

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    1. LOL, Ruthy! I'm sending the whole box to your house because you obviously love this book wayyy too much!

      I'm glad it's not another snowy scene because I the last book I handed out, people told me, "Oh, I already have that one." The covers were so similar!

      So now if they say that, I'll know they're lying and they just don't want to take it! But I'll send it in the mail so they're stuck with it... My grand scheme to grow readership revealed.

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  7. I love starting new series! I'm working on a fun cowboy one right now, and next month I'll start a wedding industry trilogy..... So how fun is that??????

    It's delightful to take a new concept and have fun with it! Go you, Virginia!!!! Who'da thunk this two years back, right? God is good and has blessed your devotion, faith and hard work ethic abundantly and that makes me so stinkin' happy!

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    1. Like Janice Thompson's series? I love those! Weddings... I just packed my dress, got on an international flight, and tried not to die from scorpions stings, scary food, and temperature not meant for delicate flowers like myself.

      And YES, I love this new series! It's all wish fulfillment. Every writer gets to a certain place where they just want to write their own heart's desire into the story. So, it has a lot of food, and the first heroine owns a rare book store. Ha! Completely self-indulgent. Like eating cotton candy for dinner.

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    2. And that last part... you are far too kind. Too lovely. Too charitable.

      Unless you're being sarcastic, and then you're singing the song of my people.

      *gives the side eye*

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    3. Totally sincere and lovin' a heroine with a rare book store. Which can be a two-meaning phrase these days!

      I'm glad you didn't die of a scorpion bite, I'm kind of laughing at you, imagining it, and I love writing and working weddings because mine was NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT. Dysfunctional families put the Fun into weddings, without even trying! But... I'm doing the inverse and having so much fun s-m-o-o-t-h-i-n-g the paths for brides and grooms and mothers that people should enjoy the stories.... We've come a long way, baby.

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  8. Where is the link to purchase this book? My parents took care of foster children for over 20 years. I have so many stories of how they changed the lives of those children and how I was blessed by growing up playing and caring for the foster children in our home. Would LOVE to read this story and then pass it onto my mother.

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    1. Aleena, dear friend! You get free copies! Send me your address (I think I had it once, but I have a mind like a steel sieve) through one of my book pages and I'll send them on to you!

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    2. Aleena, it's available for pre-order at amazon, Barnes & Noble and CBD.com. Or a local book seller can order it for you. It's officially available October 1st but is usually in stores earlier. It may be be at walmart around September 20th.

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    3. Well, Virginia answered while I was typing! :)

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  9. P.S. I think I can say this, since it doesn't identify the children, but my friends who are in the dedication... They had a foster toddler. And then there were twin toddlers in emergency foster need. So, one day I saw her and she had what looked like triplets in the back row! I almost passed out.

    What a couple they are. They have their own kids, some grown with children, four still at home, teens in school, she's homeschooling the younger ones... So when people say, "Oh, I would but I'm busy" I sort of smile. I've seen busy. And it still has hours of quiet snuggles, reading books, tender hugs, one on one time, and gentle direction. I've seen it with my own eyes. Absolutely inspiring to the rest of us mortals.

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