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Tiramsu Challenge Chapter 2

Get me a damn fine example of tiramisu, dammit! That's the idea.

The story so far: I had an atypical slice of tiramisu from Whole Foods: not much soakiness to speak of, no whipped creamish parts but a nummy buttery frosting; then I had a delicious if cartoonish version from Trader Joe's freezer section: a thin chocolate cake layer sponging up coffee goodness, then an obscene layer of creaminess, then a choke hazard of chocolate powder on top.

Enough of these national chains - let's get local. Gayle's Rotisseria in Capitola will sell you a tiramisu cake for like $32. Woah, okay, I'll have just a slice, how bout, thanks for the change. Now we're in multi-layer territory. The over-all effect is something fairly light in texture, up to the lightest sprinkling of choco powder on top. Pretty? You'll never know, I ate it before I thought to take a picture. Screw you, this isn't one of those shallow depth-of-field sensitive lighting photo-filled ladies-who-lunch vanity blogs. It is some other kind of blog. (That's telling 'em.)

Can we focus on the cake at hand, please? Gayle's tiramisu has a nice balance of white cake, whipped cream, and DAYAM that is some proofy coffee juice!!! I guess that's Kahlua? You guys, I think the coffeeness in tiramisu is supposed to be some sort of coffee liquor. Alert the media!

Anyway, nice balance of the elements, Gayle's. It goes cream, boozy coffee shloop, cake. Cream, coffee shloop, cake. Cream, coffee shloop, cake - in even layers, with the shloopdeshloo kind of hiding out, not looking that obtrusive... But maybe not for alcoholics? Watch out, alcoholics. Booze! You wouldn't think it packs such a punch, since it's not dripping or off-gassing or anything.

This quest is leading to more questions. Like this one: Uh, what is a classic tiramisu *supposed* to be like? Next time: I'll find out. Journalism!

Challenge: Tiramisu

A dear friend and I indulged a craving for tiramisu the other day by buying a single-layer one from Whole Foods. "Don't get me wrong," I told him, "This is a tasty cake. But it's not tiramisu." The bottom cake layer wasn't squishy enough with coffee, for one thing. And there was an awful lot of the cake layer, and a butter cream fosting...yummy & all. It just wasn't all that tiramisu-y.

Which led me to wonder: where does Whole Foods get off making so damn much of this imposter? Their bakery display case is lousy with tiramisi of 2 or 3 forms every ding dang day I go in there. And to think all of it is wrong, wrong, wrong. Which led him to wonder: where does one go for a good tiramisu around here? [music swells]

And so begins the Quest!

Chapter One: Trader Joe's freezer section
Defrost a couple hours in the fridge, gingerly remove the plastic band around the sides...and get chocolate powder all over your hands, fridge shelves, countertops, everything. I have never seen a cake so well dusted with chocolate. More on this later.

This one hits the tiramisu spot. Pleasantly squishy with coffee on the bottom chocolate cake layer, nummy custardy goop-de-goo making up the majority of the cake, then the Thickest Layer of Chocolate Powder on the Planet ZOMG. It's prevalent enough that you have to do that thing when eating powdered doughnuts, where you don't breathe in as you're biting because you'll cause a (tasty) dust storm in your mouth and start coughing. So, proceed with caution.

Trader Joe's prepackaged tiramisu is now the one to beat. Sad trumpet sounds for you, Whole Foods!