Tiramisu & cookies to end off 2009!

I am not a fan of Tiramisu but one of my friends is and it is her birthday!! So... I decided to make one for her. My initial plan was to make small portions in small containers, using readily available lady finger biscuits as I was lazy and was also afraid that removing the cake from the tin is gonna be a difficult task.

But I guess the lack of baking for the past 1 month plus made me decide to bake the sponge layer.... And also, a birthday should come with a whole cake afterall. I looked around for a number of recipes before I decided on the one from Happy Homebaker. I replaced the non-dairy whipping cream with a dairy one though.

The preparation of the tiramisu was pretty easy. The removal of the cake from the tin was much easier than expected too... just that there were some small areas not covered by the cream as I did not trim the sponge cake small enough. The difficult part was transferring it onto another cake board. The tiramisu seems so heavy and almost ready to break... I had to ask my sis for help. I always had problems transferring cakes... but I realised, sometimes you just have to be 'courageous' and not think too much... and before you know it, it is done beautifully. Ha...

So how did the cake taste? Hmm.... I can only say my friends ate up their portions fast and the birthday girl volunteered to bring back the remaining cake which we did not cut. I have eaten Tiramisu for less than 5 times in my life and it is almost impossible for me to compare. But I find the sponge layer soggy... my friends told me it is meant to be this way though. Ok, I guess this is a successful bake afterall.

On the very same day, I made cookies while waiting for the sponge cake to cool. This is my 2nd attempt at making tollhouse cookies (Recipe from Alex Goh-"Baking Code"). This time round the cookies did not taste as good... probably because I forgot to toast my nuts and one of the ingredient has lost its aroma & taste after being kept for too long.

And these were my cheapo Chirstmas presents for my dear friends... Heh :P Hope they enjoyed it.

So 2009 came to an end with these bakes... hopefully, I'll have more time to bake in 2010!