Ides of March - Blood Orange Tiramisu - BAKED Occasions


My tiramisu was not the prettiest looking dessert I have ever made. Usually this time of year we are making homemade pies for Pie Day, which my family has been celebrating for 20 years since long before it became a day people actually celebrated. Perhaps next year I will go into that, but my brother really started it for us and we would make pies together in high school. Later on, our friends came and joined up too. This year with other desserts I was making in March we were going with a few other holiday events, and our boys are not big fans of pie yet so that is okay. We will get them converted sooner or later.

So I have never really heard much about the Ides of March as a holiday and wouldn't have celebrated it at all, except that I am attempting to make all the desserts for March in the BAKED Occasions book. I was very excited to try this recipe though. I have always liked the idea of tiramisu as a dessert, to me it seems like the Italian version of the English trifle, layering custard and cookies or cake and then letting the flavors mingle for an extended time before serving. My only issue with traditional tiramisu is my dislike for the flavor of coffee. I have stated this before, and I have also used coffee before when it is called for in other recipes in the BAKED cookbook series, particularly because they use it in chocolate recipes and it masks the coffee flavor.

Here was a recipe, however, that had the components of traditional tiramisu except the coffee flavors were replaced with orange, and orange happens to be a favorite flavor of mine. I have many times told people that I am not a fan of fruity candy and only like chocolate candy as an option. It often gives me an out if I am watching my sugar or dessert intake. In most cases this is true, I can forgo the skittles and starburst quite easily. When I was younger though and was not quite so picky, when I received some of these less desirable fruity candies at Halloween, I would eat them in a certain order always leaving the orange flavored candies for last because they were my favorite flavor. When I got to pick which Kool-Aide packet we mixed up in the summer I always picked orange.

Now when I got to my regular central Iowa grocery store there were no blood oranges available so I went with regular oranges. I am sure there is a difference in flavor, but since I have never had a blood orange I figured I wouldn't be missing too much. When I got everything home and was preparing the recipe I was surprised at how quickly it went together. I only made half a recipe since I am making other desserts this month and didn't want too much extra around, otherwise, I would eat it!

It felt like it took so long to wait for it to be ready, but in the end, it was worth the wait. This tiramisu was everything I was hoping it would be! I was so light and creamy, and the orange flavor really came through. Usually, I do not enjoy combining orange and chocolate flavors, but it really worked together well in this dessert. I think I could have gone a little bit lighter on the cocoa powder but otherwise, it was perfect and I wouldn't change a thing.

Timing: Recipe States: not printed, My Actual Timing: 30 minutes preparation, several hours chilling
Servings: Recipe States: 16 to 20 servings, Servings For My Family: I think 6-9 would be about right.
Leftovers: This dessert stayed fantastic for a couple more days as leftovers.


Family Ratings:
Me: I thought this dessert was wonderful and I would enjoy having it again, but I wouldn't serve it to my children with quite this much alcohol in it and the raw eggs.


Will I repeat: Yes, I will make this again.

What will I change: Not a thing!

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