Perth Shivers. Irish Tiramisu. Oh, Cadbury.


 

Cold snaps are challenging enough to endure on their own.

 

 

But when your hot water system blows up as well, you’re going to need more of an intervention then just slipping on some fauxpard uggs and hoping that you’ve got a pot large enough to boil the water you’ll need for a bird bath.

I only had to live the bird bath scenario once this weekend because we were lucky enough to have found some of Perth’s friendliest and efficient plumbers. They dropped by at short notice Saturday lunchtime and we were set up with a new water heater that afternoon. The electrical supply is still a bit dubious but the plumbers manages to rig up temporary supply via an extra long power cord. We’re all good for hot water all through the long weekend.

 

I’ll spare you the complete ode but that first hot shower with the new system in place was the highlight of my weekend. Washing my hair turned out to be such a pleasure that I even whipped the hair dryer around the general direction of my head afterwards. One doesn’t blow dry in the conventional manner when one needs to have one eye on a baby. I’m beginning to think brushes and combs are overrated, it’s all about the finger wave.

 

 

With my shower dramas resolved, let’s get to the main topic of today’s post. Tiramisu. It is a long weekend Sunday after all featuring a family lunch. I always used to be in charge of dessert before I moved to Sydney and today was my chance to revisit that role. The recipe I used is this one from Best Recipes. I like it because it doesn’t require fancy work with raw eggs and the preparation is pretty straight forward.

 

 

 

The surprise ingredient is the decidedly unItalian Baileys Irish Cream. In case you were wondering, one hotel mini bar sized bottle is all you need for the recipe. They cost around $5 at Vintage Cellars. Frangelico and Tia Maria are other options but I’m under the influence of Irish chick lit at the moment so it was Baileys for me.

 

 

Cadbury Flake topped desserts are so late seventies, aren’t they? They take me back to my childhood when a soft serve with a flake skewered off centre was my favourite offering from Mr Whippy. Unfortunately, something strange seems to have happened in the kingdom of Cadbury because since then because Flakes don’t crumble like they used to and Roses have shrunk and gone down the 100% artificial flavouring and colouring path to blandsville. It’s such a shame.

 

 

 

So yes, I’m blaming Cadbury for the fact that the top of my tiramisu looks like wood chip. Fortunately, the tiramisu was a great success in all other areas. I thought that I hadn’t enough cream mixture for the number of sponge fingers I had but the ratio was actually spot on when I had a closer look at lunch today. Because this recipe isn’t overly sweet, it has proven to be overly moreish. In addition to my lunchtime serve, I’ve snuck in more for afternoon tea and just now for dinner. You can justify anything on a long weekend.

 

As per some reviews of the recipe:

  • I put Baileys in both the cream and the ‘dunking’ coffee.
  • I used 4 dessert spoons of instant coffee as I hadn’t access to shots of espresso.
  • I left the fully assembled tiramisu to soak overnight. Definitely helped develop the flavour and texture but didn’t do a thing to those pellets of Flake. They’re indestructible.

 

Have you noticed the change in Flakes and Roses yourself? Or have you been on a boycott since that crazy time the chocolate was repackaged in cardboard to disguise the reduction in size of the product?

 

 

 

 


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