pound cake tiramisu :)

My amazing friend Leann had a free Everyday Food (Martha Stewart) magazine subscription to share with someone and she chose me....(!!!)  Yes; I am just that lucky.  We're having a few couples over for dinner tonight and my favorite part of having company over for dinner is making the dessert.  Okay, let's be honest, I like the "wow" factor. (the term "wow" factor is a little side reference to Howie Mandel for anyone watching America's Got Talent... :-P  )

I saw in the FE magazine a recipe for a pound-cake tiramisu.  I loved the idea, but I wanted to make it from scratch, where the magazine called for a store-bought pound cake.  My mom gave me a cream cheese pound cake recipe months ago and it's gotten great reviews from neighbors and family alike.  So, now we will see how people like my cream cheese pound cake tiramisu. :-)  (As it is only 3:30 and the company is coming at 5:30, I don't know what it tastes like yet.  But, if if tastes as good as it looks, I think we're in for a real treat!)

Here's what I did:

First made the pound cake last night.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 5/8c. flour
2 tsp. vanilla

2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted


-cream butter, cheese, sugar and eggs one at a time; gradually add flour and vanilla.  beat well, at least 10 minutes.

-put 5 cups of batter in a greased and sugared (instead of flour--yum!) bundt pan.*

-mix 2 squares melted chocolate with remaining batter; pour on top of batter and swirl

-put in cold oven (not preheated) at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes

*because of my decision to make it into tiramisu, I put it in two cake pans instead and then baked about 50 minutes

(I was distracted during the final stages of making mine by a troublemaking toddler and so forgot to take out 2c. of batter.  I swirled my chocolate into the rest of the batter, but it won't look or taste as good that way.)


I let them cool last night and then wrapped them in saran wrap overnight.

This morning I cut each of them in half, since I needed to have the sponge part of the cake open, not the crust. (In hindsight, I could have just cut the very top of them off and saved some work later, so take note! If you want to use fewer ingredients and make a shorter cake, just cut a thin layer off the top of each to make two cake layers overall.)

To prepare layers,

1)mix in small bowl:
1/2 c. strong coffee (can use espresso)
2 TBS dark rum or brandy (I used 1 TBS rum exract)

2)Cream together (separate from coffee mixture)*:
1 c. heavy cream
4 oz. bar cream cheese
3 TBS confectioner's sugar
*double this if you make four layers instead of two

3)Shave 1/4c. (or 1/2c. if you're making four layers) semisweet chocolate

Starting with one cake, brush coffee/rum mixture onto sponge side of cake. (Try to use all of coffee mixture; I wasn't paying attention enough with mine and threw about half away afterwards. :(  Don't make my mistake!)  Then add a layer of cream mixture.  Then add a layer of shaved chocolate.

Repeat until you're done!! :)

* place covered in the refrigerator four at least 4 hours (and up to one week!!) before serving.