Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 April 2026

Update Tiramisu and Black Forest Gateaux recipies

Tiramisu - 2020 style

This is PROPER Tiramisu.

Translated from the Italian as "Pick me up" - "Tira mi su". Multiple pick me ups due to the sugar, caffeine and alcohol content :) not to mention chocolate(Theobromine).

Edible ingredients:
Strong coffee (~2 bowls made with a heaped spoon (table) of instant coffee)
 ~80g siucra=sugar (caster|granulated|brown least refined is best)
Finger biscuits 2pkts (or Sponge trifle 200g)
CocoA powder
2 eggs - 2yolks, 1white used
Mascarpone cheese 1pk (200g)
2 spoon bacardi rum (or equivalent)

Tools:
A dish or bowl with sides to hold the finished product, rectangular pyrex dishes are good and a lid is handy.
2 other bowls big enough for beating/mixing.
Spoons or spatulas(silicone ideally) 
Kettle to boil water and instant coffee or coffee maker.
A fork and a strong arm OR a mixing tool.

Method:
1. Mix siucra and 2 yolks.
   Beat really hard + for long time until it goes a light colour.
       Your arm should be falling off now, don't worry >;) there's more
       beating to come.
   Add mascarpone and bacardi and mix in.
   The small amount of liquid should help make sure all the grains of sugar break down.

2. Beat egg-white hard until quite stiff.
       Stiff peaks form. 

3. Mix 1 & 2 gently together to give you some nice creamy gunk.
   N.B. fold gently together, do NOT beat.

4. Make black coffee.

ASSEMBLEY ASCII diagram:

            |_________________________| -sprinkling of cocoa on top
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC| -layer of creamy gunk
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB| -layer of coffee-soaked biscuits
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            +-------------------------+

5. Soak each biscuit in the coffee before layering in bottom of dish.
   If you're using the sponge cake (tsk tsk) you'd better skip this pre-soak, you don't
   really want it to disintegrate before it gets to the intended bowl.

6. When you have the layer done use more coffee to soak biscuits/cake thoroughly
   - they should be squishy to touch but not soaking wet.
   Now cover this layer with about half the creamy gunk and smooth it out.

7. Add another layer of soaked biscuits and another layer of creamy gunk.
8. Leave in the fridge to soak and firm up.
9. Sprinkle the top with the cocoa.

Enjoy.

Credit for this excellent dish must go to Lucia Gualteri and the Italian nation in general.

Italians are very precise cooks. Surprisingly, instant coffee is approved ok to use in this dish as long as it's strong. The brown sugar has not been officially approved, just make sure people taste it

I also learned how to cook brocolli with garlic and pasta from Lucia and this in Milenese dialect:

Ehi tu! Tachet i tac a ti.                Hey you! You fix my shoe.
Io!? Tachet i tac a ti ?                  Me!? Fix your shoe ?
Che te tachet i tac a ti !?               Why I fix your shoe !?
Tachet i ti i to tac.                     Fix your own shoe yourself.

In 1998 a few friends made a "dspsrv cookbook" and this recipe originally appeared in the #bake section (t)here:
http://dspsrv.waider.ie/cookbook/bake.html#__Tiramisu_


Tiramisu slice




Ehi tu! Tachet i tac a ti.                Hey you! You fix my shoe.
Io!? Tachet i tac a ti ?                  Me!? Fix your shoe ?
Che te tachet i tac a ti !?               Why I fix your shoe !?
Tachet i ti i to tac.                     Fix your own shoe yourself.


Tiramisu - 1998 style

No! put me down! roughly translated from the Italian as "Pick me up" - "Tira mi su" due to the caffeine and alcohol content :) Full credit for this excellent dish must go to Lucia and the Italian nation in general - James

Ingredients

Strong coffee (~2 bowls made with a heaped spoon (table) of coffee)

~80g siucra (that'd be sugar)

Finger biscuits/Sponge trifle 200g, 2pkts

Cocoa powder

2 eggs - 2yolks, 1white used

Mascarpone cheese 1pk

2 spoon bacardi rum

Method

Mix siucra and 2 yolks. Beat really hard + for long time until it goes a light colour. Your arm should be falling off now, don't worry >;) there's more beating to come. Add mascarpone and bacardi and mix in.

Beat egg-white hard (again! :( ) until stiff. Have fun persuading your fork to stand up! - If it doesn't say 'ahhh - this forks too thin' and give up :).

Mix above mixtures together to give you some creamy gunk. N.B. fold gently together, do NOT beat.

Mix big spoon of coffee with a bowl of boiling water. Don't SCALD yourself! We don't want any dead flesh in this dish, it's meant to be Vegetarian remember! (not that I can see anything vegtablike about coffee, cake, cheese, eggs, sugar or bacardi!)

Soak each biscuit in the coffee before layering in bottom of dish. Again: don't scald! Only a silly person :) would also dunk their fingers into the boiling coffee! :O if you're using the cake you'd better skip this pre-soak, you don't really want it to disintegrate before it gets to the intended bowl.

When you have a layer use more coffee to soak biscuits/cake thoroughly - they should be squishy to touch (ugh!). Now cover this layer with about half the creamy gunk and smooth it out.

After another layer of soaked biscuits and cream leave in the fridge to recover a while. Sprinkle with the cocoa sometime.

Force yourself and some hapless friends to eat the horrible stuff! :)

The compulsory ASCII garfic diagram:

|___________________| -sprinkling of coco on top
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC| -layer of creamy gunk
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB| -layer of coffee-soaked biscuits
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
+-------------------+
Underneath of Tiramisu



Tiramisu - 2020 style

No! put me down!
roughly translated from the Italian as "Pick me up" - "Tira mi su" 
due to the caffeine and alcohol content :)
Now that we're accessable by lots of people (not that we're gonna be) full credit for this excellent dish must go to Lucia and the Italian nation in general.


Before this little bit of paper disintegrates :-

Edible ingredients:

Strong coffee    (~2 bowls made with a heaped spoon (table) of coffee)
 ~80g siucra
Finger biscuits/Sponge trifle 200g, 2pkts
CocoA powder
2 eggs - 2yolks, 1white used
Mascarpone cheese 1pk
2 spoon bacardi rum (not too much Paul!)

Tools:
A bowl to hold the finished product - say roughly dish size but it
needs sides to hold the floppy stuff in!
Various other bowls, spoons & forks, kettle to boil water 'n stuff.
An arm like a WWF SuperWrestler or Lucia.

The compulsory ASCII barfic diagram:

            |_________________________| -sprinkling of coco on top
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC| -layer of creamy gunk
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB| -layer of coffee-soaked biscuits
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            +-------------------------+

1. Mix siucra and 2 yolks.
   Beat really hard + for long time until it goes a light colour.
       Your arm should be falling off now, don't worry >;) there's more
       beating to come.
   Add mascarpone and bacardi and mix in.

2. Beat egg-white hard (again! :( ) until stiff.
       Have fun persuading your fork to stand up! - If it doesn't
       say 'ahhh - this forks too thin' and give up :).

3. Mix 1 & 2 together to give you some creamy gunk.
   N.B. fold gently together, do NOT beat.

4. Mix big spoon of coffee with a bowl of boiling water.
       Don't SCALD yourself! We don't want any dead flesh in this dish,
       it's meant to be Vegetarian remember! (not that I can see anything
       vegtablike about coffee, cake, cheese, eggs, sugar or bacardi!)

5. Soak each biscuit in the coffee before layering in bottom of dish.
       Again: don't scald! Only a silly person :) like, say, Lucia would
       also dunk her fingers into the boiling coffee! :O
   If you're using the cake you'd better skip this pre-soak, you don't
   really want it to disintegrate before it gets to the intended bowl.

6. When you have a layer use more coffee to soak biscuits/cake thoroughly
   - they should be squishy to touch (ugh!).
   Now cover this layer with about half the creamy gunk and smooth it out.

7. After another layer of soaked biscuits and cream leave in the fridge to
   recover a while. Sprinkle with the cocoa sometime.

8. Force yourself and some hapless friends to eat the horrible stuff! :)

Ingredients, beating eggs



 The DSPs shared some recipies and made a cookbook. 

https://www.dspsrv.com/~setanta/dspcook.html

What year was that ? Maybe 1998.




https://www.dspsrv.com/~setanta/bake.html#Black_Forest_Gateau_ 

Black Forest Gateau

Originally from "Nan Nestor". It has since been modified and taken on a distinctly Coleman character. Thanks to Mum for the good tips on "The Science of making Sponge". Basically (I'll get my notes later) - James

Ingredients

6 eggs

6oz caster sugar

6oz flour & cocoa/coco mix

75/100ml water (recommendation from Brenda Costigan's book)

Black cherries or grapes

cherry/cranberry/blackcurrant/apple juice

kirsch/red jamacian rum/bacardi/sherry/wine/cider?

Whipped cream.

Grated chocolate.

Method

Turn on the damn oven. 180 degrees. (I keep on forgetting to do this at this stage.)

Separate the yolks from the whites.

Mix the yolks, sugar, flour & cocoa and water and beat (with a whisk). Really beat the ____ out of it. Get it nice and creamy. When you rub a finger in it and it holds the streak for just a second you're done. (thanks Mum)

Now beat up the egg whites until they're stiff. Fold the eggwhites gently into the other mix and transfer to the baking trays. Into the oven rapido super quick but treat the sponge gently.

Be paranoid and don't open the oven too soon. Don't BANG the oven door - the sponge doesn't like it.

It could be done in 20 minutes, but for 6:6:6 IN TWO BREAD-LOAF TINS it took 35/40 minutes to bake. Less time if the sponge is split into smaller/flatter cakes.

Slice a knife into the sponge. If it comes out clean it's done.

Assembly of Black Forest Gateau:

Seed the grapes and stone the cherries. Mmmmm. Lick each one. (just kidding!) Nice juice :-P''''

Chop the sponge in three thin slices.

Lay the bottom slice on the tray the cake will be served on. This tray is best flat, without edges. (edges interfere with slicing and attachment of grated chocolate).

Pour juice and kirsch/red jamacian rum/bacardi on the sponge. I like to get it really moist ... but this makes sure the slices will never be able to stand up by themselves.

Lay out grapes/cherries on top of the sponge.

Spread a thin layer of cream on top to help the next layer stick.

Lay the next layer of sponge on top of this, soak with juice, pile with grapes and spread with cream as before.

Repeat again but don't put any cream right on the top. If you want to be really fancy heat some juice and thicken it with some cornflour or arrowroot. Pour this syrup on top to make the cherries really Shiny.

Please note I disclaim all responsability for how any these diagrams display on your browser - BPC.

The compulsory ASCII barfic diagram:

____________________________ -syrup on top for shine (usually omitted)
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc -layer of cherries only (grapes okay too)
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCc -layer of cream
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc -layer of grapes/cherries
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc -layer of juice/rum-soaked sponge
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCc
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
-------------------------------------------

Cream (C) is slathered around the outside.

Grated chocolate (c) is stuck to that all around the edge.

Note

Self raising flour (or flour + baking powder) used mix about 2/3 flour and 1/3 cocoa. Coco makes a the sponge a bit pale but as it's hidden by cream & grape and doused in juice & rum/kirsch/whatever it hardly makes a difference. If using electric whisk much more air is incorporated so they say use normal flour.

Interesting to note the 1egg:1oz ratio. the 6:6:6 is for two bread-loaf sized cakes. Which makes a good amount of gateau - enough for 10/a few more people. The ratio is varied according to cake made and quantity desired. Cooking time will of course then vary ... depending on amount of sponge and size of container.






Thursday, 30 April 2020

family dinner plan: melon with mint lime ginger, sticky rice pearl balls, bread and hummus, apple cake

Family dinner was me this evening.

Melon with zesty ginger sauce

Hummus and tomato bread/calzone log

Sticky rice balls (turkey & veg)

Apple crumble


Calzone log with tomatos and cheese (and sage and parsley) before rolling up.

Rice balls into steamer.

Serve melon with garnish of mint and ginger sauce in jug.



The calzone log disappeared so fast I almost didn't get a picture!

Apple crumble also almost all gone before picture was taken.

Rice balls wrapped in nasturtium leaves. THe leaves worked really well to stop them sticking. And they are tasty themselves or come off easy enough. 


Inspiration and help with instructions from . . . 

Melon

https://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000128409,00.html
https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/melons-with-ginger-syrup
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a537483/melon-with-ginger-and-port-vinaigrette/

Crank's Recipe book hummus
With two tins of chick peas as 4 cloves of garlic is too much for 1 tin of chick peas.

A rylandpeters.com easy vegetarian recipe for pizza dough

Sticky rice balls

https://www.thespruceeats.com/pearl-balls-appetizer-695040
https://www.happycow.net/blog/cooking-sticky-rice-balls/
https://foodsogoodmall.com/recipe/201104chinese-turkey-rice-ball-appetizers-html/

Darina Allen's Ballymaloe apple crumble

Plan

0. soak rice

1. marinade turkey

2. bread

3. hummus

4. cake

5. rice balls

6. melon

7. and serve . . .

Do

1. Chopped onion and green pepper and grated ginger, mixed with turkey mince and turmeric.

2. Made yeast dough. Left on top of kettle to rise.
7g yeast, mix of strong white and interesting flour 20g, 125ml warm water, 2 tbsp olive oil
half tsp salt,
mix. knead. rise.

3. Made hummus, mashed drained tin of chick-peas with grated garlic. 2 tbsp olive oil, 4 tbsp yoghurt, lemon juice. Too garlicky! Added another tin of chick peas. Mashed. Taste. Better. Add pepper.

From garden . . . got parsley, sage, mint and bunch of nasturtium leaves which are a bit small this time of year. Parsley to garnish hummus. Parsley and sage to mix with tomatos for the calzone. Mint for the melon ginger sauce. Nasturtium leaves instead of banana leaves to cook the sticky rice balls in.

4. Peeled and chopped apple. In with some sugar and water to steam/stew.
Slightly overdid the stewed apple but used the syrup/juice for the ginger melon sauce. Added mint leaves, lime juice and zest and grated ginger and simmer.

Crumble
110g flour, 50g butter mix with hands until crumby, add 50g sugar. mix.
Add crumble on top of apple in a suitable baking dish and into oven oops 200 then 180 degrees for 30 to 45 mins.

Calzone log
Roll out dough on floury surface.
Chop tomato, mix with sage and parsley, spread on rolled out dough like pizza.
Add cheese (white cheddar).
Roll up into log, seal the ends with tomato juice and squeeze dough to seal.
Into oven.

5. Put marinaded turkey and veg into a big bowl. Add some spoons of the soaked rice and an egg and some cornflour. Mix.

Prepare bottom layer of steamer with nasturtium leaves (stick the stalks out the holes)
Lay out soaked rice on a plate.
Form a ball of the mix then put on plate, press rice around the outside.
Place in steamer.
Repeat that about 30 times!

Steam a good long while to cook the rice and meat. About 30/35/.. mins.

Oven off and leaving calzone log and crumble inside to keep warm.

6. Slice melon and remove seeds. Chopping into chunks would have worked better actually.

Lay table. Chopsticks. Forks. Glasses. Water. Soy sauce and sweet chilli ready with small bowls for rice balls.

Serve melon with zesty ginger sauce in jug for pour over.

Serve calzone log with hummus.

Serve rice balls.

Serve crumble with ice-cream and tea.


Review

YUM

phew it took a good while to prepare! 2hours/2:30 ish


Saturday, 18 January 2020

Making a Tiramisu, dspsrv cookbook is out again.

Tiramisu

No! put me down!
roughly translated from the Italian as "Pick me up" - "Tira mi su" 
due to the caffeine and alcohol content :)
Now that we're accessable by lots of people (not that we're gonna be) full credit for this excellent dish must go to Lucia and the Italian nation in general.


Before this little bit of paper disintegrates :-

Edible ingredients:

Strong coffee    (~2 bowls made with a heaped spoon (table) of coffee)
 ~80g siucra
Finger biscuits/Sponge trifle 200g, 2pkts
CocoA powder
2 eggs - 2yolks, 1white used
Mascarpone cheese 1pk
2 spoon bacardi rum (not too much Paul!)

Tools:
A bowl to hold the finished product - say roughly dish size but it
needs sides to hold the floppy stuff in!
Various other bowls, spoons & forks, kettle to boil water 'n stuff.
An arm like a WWF SuperWrestler or Lucia.

The compulsory ASCII barfic diagram:

            |_________________________| -sprinkling of coco on top
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC| -layer of creamy gunk
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB| -layer of coffee-soaked biscuits
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            |BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
            +-------------------------+

1. Mix siucra and 2 yolks.
   Beat really hard + for long time until it goes a light colour.
       Your arm should be falling off now, don't worry >;) there's more
       beating to come.
   Add mascarpone and bacardi and mix in.

2. Beat egg-white hard (again! :( ) until stiff.
       Have fun persuading your fork to stand up! - If it doesn't
       say 'ahhh - this forks too thin' and give up :).

3. Mix 1 & 2 together to give you some creamy gunk.
   N.B. fold gently together, do NOT beat.

4. Mix big spoon of coffee with a bowl of boiling water.
       Don't SCALD yourself! We don't want any dead flesh in this dish,
       it's meant to be Vegetarian remember! (not that I can see anything
       vegtablike about coffee, cake, cheese, eggs, sugar or bacardi!)

5. Soak each biscuit in the coffee before layering in bottom of dish.
       Again: don't scald! Only a silly person :) like, say, Lucia would
       also dunk her fingers into the boiling coffee! :O
   If you're using the cake you'd better skip this pre-soak, you don't
   really want it to disintegrate before it gets to the intended bowl.

6. When you have a layer use more coffee to soak biscuits/cake thoroughly
   - they should be squishy to touch (ugh!).
   Now cover this layer with about half the creamy gunk and smooth it out.

7. After another layer of soaked biscuits and cream leave in the fridge to
   recover a while. Sprinkle with the cocoa sometime.

8. Force yourself and some hapless friends to eat the horrible stuff! :)

Ingredients, beating eggs




 dspsrv cookbook #bake section here:
http://dspsrv.waider.ie/cookbook/bake.html#__Tiramisu_

And parts here:
http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/me/kitchen.html#%22Tiramisu%22

Saturday, 6 August 2011

juicy flapjacks!

Well, not juicy. nice and moist.
Cranks and Flahavans recipies both similar. I added "pink" tea. And raisins.

350g oats
200g butter
100g brown sugar
2tbsp golden syrup
1-2ish mugs tea (herbal or "real")
some raisins

1. mix all together in bowl. hot tea will melt the butter. leave to soak for at least 30 mins.
2. heat oven to 150C/300F/gas2
3. spread mix out on baking tray which has been covered with greaseproof paper. fold up edges and squeeze to make straight sides.
4. bake for 30+ mins. turn up heat at end and brush top with milk to get a golden brown top.
5. cut squares while still warm. leave to cool and firm up in tin.

Kate and I cooked spanish omlette for tea. potatoes cut in short and chunky chips. onion rings.
blanch/par boil those. then fry. add garlic and chilli. keep stirring. add some spinach chopped up small. keep stirring. open all windows to vent choking chilli fumes. add some chopped tomatoes. finally add eggs on top. don't stir. add slices of cheese and grill.

also pictured a cake from Ekram. she'a just had baby and baking us cake!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.9

Tuesday, 23 June 1998

Coleman's Style Black Forest Gateau and proper Italian Tiramisu recipies

The DSPs shared some recipies and made a cookbook. 

https://www.dspsrv.com/~setanta/dspcook.html

What year was that ? Maybe 1998.


https://www.dspsrv.com/~setanta/bake.html#Black_Forest_Gateau_

Black Forest Gateau

Originally from "Nan Nestor". It has since been modified and taken on a distinctly Coleman character. Thanks to Mum for the good tips on "The Science of making Sponge". Basically (I'll get my notes later) - James

Ingredients

6 eggs

6oz caster sugar

6oz flour & cocoa/coco mix

75/100ml water (recommendation from Brenda Costigan's book)

Black cherries or grapes

cherry/cranberry/blackcurrant/apple juice

kirsch/red jamacian rum/bacardi/sherry/wine/cider?

Whipped cream.

Grated chocolate.

Method

Turn on the damn oven. 180 degrees. (I keep on forgetting to do this at this stage.)

Separate the yolks from the whites.

Mix the yolks, sugar, flour & cocoa and water and beat (with a whisk). Really beat the ____ out of it. Get it nice and creamy. When you rub a finger in it and it holds the streak for just a second you're done. (thanks Mum)

Now beat up the egg whites until they're stiff. Fold the eggwhites gently into the other mix and transfer to the baking trays. Into the oven rapido super quick but treat the sponge gently.

Be paranoid and don't open the oven too soon. Don't BANG the oven door - the sponge doesn't like it.

It could be done in 20 minutes, but for 6:6:6 IN TWO BREAD-LOAF TINS it took 35/40 minutes to bake. Less time if the sponge is split into smaller/flatter cakes.

Slice a knife into the sponge. If it comes out clean it's done.

Assembly of Black Forest Gateau:

Seed the grapes and stone the cherries. Mmmmm. Lick each one. (just kidding!) Nice juice :-P''''

Chop the sponge in three thin slices.

Lay the bottom slice on the tray the cake will be served on. This tray is best flat, without edges. (edges interfere with slicing and attachment of grated chocolate).

Pour juice and kirsch/red jamacian rum/bacardi on the sponge. I like to get it really moist ... but this makes sure the slices will never be able to stand up by themselves.

Lay out grapes/cherries on top of the sponge.

Spread a thin layer of cream on top to help the next layer stick.

Lay the next layer of sponge on top of this, soak with juice, pile with grapes and spread with cream as before.

Repeat again but don't put any cream right on the top. If you want to be really fancy heat some juice and thicken it with some cornflour or arrowroot. Pour this syrup on top to make the cherries really Shiny.

Please note I disclaim all responsability for how any these diagrams display on your browser - BPC.

The compulsory ASCII barfic diagram:

____________________________ -syrup on top for shine (usually omitted)
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc -layer of cherries only (grapes okay too)
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCc -layer of cream
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc -layer of grapes/cherries
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc -layer of juice/rum-soaked sponge
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCc
cCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCGCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
cCSSJSSJSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSSJSCc
-------------------------------------------

Cream (C) is slathered around the outside.

Grated chocolate (c) is stuck to that all around the edge.

Note

Self raising flour (or flour + baking powder) used mix about 2/3 flour and 1/3 cocoa. Coco makes a the sponge a bit pale but as it's hidden by cream & grape and doused in juice & rum/kirsch/whatever it hardly makes a difference. If using electric whisk much more air is incorporated so they say use normal flour.

Interesting to note the 1egg:1oz ratio. the 6:6:6 is for two bread-loaf sized cakes. Which makes a good amount of gateau - enough for 10/a few more people. The ratio is varied according to cake made and quantity desired. Cooking time will of course then vary ... depending on amount of sponge and size of container.


Tiramisu

No! put me down! roughly translated from the Italian as "Pick me up" - "Tira mi su" due to the caffeine and alcohol content :) Full credit for this excellent dish must go to Lucia and the Italian nation in general - James

Ingredients

Strong coffee (~2 bowls made with a heaped spoon (table) of coffee)

~80g siucra (that'd be sugar)

Finger biscuits/Sponge trifle 200g, 2pkts

Cocoa powder

2 eggs - 2yolks, 1white used

Mascarpone cheese 1pk

2 spoon bacardi rum

Method

Mix siucra and 2 yolks. Beat really hard + for long time until it goes a light colour. Your arm should be falling off now, don't worry >;) there's more beating to come. Add mascarpone and bacardi and mix in.

Beat egg-white hard (again! :( ) until stiff. Have fun persuading your fork to stand up! - If it doesn't say 'ahhh - this forks too thin' and give up :).

Mix above mixtures together to give you some creamy gunk. N.B. fold gently together, do NOT beat.

Mix big spoon of coffee with a bowl of boiling water. Don't SCALD yourself! We don't want any dead flesh in this dish, it's meant to be Vegetarian remember! (not that I can see anything vegtablike about coffee, cake, cheese, eggs, sugar or bacardi!)

Soak each biscuit in the coffee before layering in bottom of dish. Again: don't scald! Only a silly person :) would also dunk their fingers into the boiling coffee! :O if you're using the cake you'd better skip this pre-soak, you don't really want it to disintegrate before it gets to the intended bowl.

When you have a layer use more coffee to soak biscuits/cake thoroughly - they should be squishy to touch (ugh!). Now cover this layer with about half the creamy gunk and smooth it out.

After another layer of soaked biscuits and cream leave in the fridge to recover a while. Sprinkle with the cocoa sometime.

Force yourself and some hapless friends to eat the horrible stuff! :)

The compulsory ASCII barfic diagram:

|_________________________| -sprinkling of coco on top
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC| -layer of creamy gunk
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB| -layer of coffee-soaked biscuits
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB|
+------------------------------------+