Ma's Birthday Tiramisu

It was my mom's 50th birthday yesterday, so I decided to whip out my very best imitation of butt-kicking baking skills and try my hand at tiramisu.
If you're wondering "What the heck is tiramisu?", it's definitely not a lady-wooing technique as Tom Hanks so wrongly assumes in "Sleepless In Seattle." Tiramisu is a popular Italian cake consisting of ladyfinger cookies (dipped in coffee or rum) and layered with a mascarpone cheese mixed with egg yolks and sugar. The name tiramisu literally means "pick me up" (hence the liberal amounts of coffee and sugar present).

I decided to make my own ladyfinger cookies, as store-bought ladyfingers just seem a little questionable to me. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com, and it worked out pretty splendidly.

I used Giada De Laurentiis' recipe for the mascarpone cheese filling (with added cinnamon), dipped the ladyfingers in cinnamon coffee, and added a little bit of cinnamon on top along with cocoa power and chopped chocolate. Come on, people...How can that not sound good?


Giada de Laurentiis' mascarpone cheese filling recipe:

- 6 egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 pound mascarpone cheese

Whip egg yolks with sugar until the mixture is thick and pale. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until the mixture is smooth...That means no lumps of cheese, people! It will probably take about five minutes.