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.)

• 6 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons rum
• 2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfinger cookies
• 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!