One of my favorite desserts is tiramisu. I do not eat it frequently, though, because it’s expensive [involving Mascarpone cheese] and complicated [involving egg whites and other daunting things]. However, in the wake of a truly tasty birthday tiramisu for a coworker last week, I sought online for tiramisu recipes. Inspired by the recipe section on Heavenly Tiramisu, I combined several recipes to create a tiramisu-like dessert for the culinarily challenged. Best of all, it involves no raw eggs, no Mascarpone cheese and no liquor!

Ingredients

2 cups fat-free ricotta cheese. This is obviously your Mascarpone substitute, only lower in fat, calories and cost.
1 tsp vanilla extract. This is because your ricotta does not taste that exciting plain.
1/4 cup granulated superfine sugar. Ditto. Also it has to be superfine, which is the right consistency to mix with the ricotta. I haven’t tried this with artificial sweeteners.
1/2 lb angel food cake. This is your base, less expensive and finicky than ladyfingers. Same thing, different form.
1/2 cup instant decaf coffee. This is your flavoring for your cake base.
1 tsp cocoa powder. This is what you sprinkle on top.

Instructions

Make coffee in a wide-mouth container. Let cool. Ignore foul stench.
Mix ricotta, vanilla extract and sugar in a bowl.
Slice the cake.
Dip one face of each slice quickly into the coffee. Coffee should soak the cake about halfway through, but leave the other side dry.
Put the slices dry side down in a casserole dish or similar till they cover the bottom of the dish.
Spread the cheesy goodness on top of the coffee-soaked cake.
Refridgerate the tiramisu for at least an hour.
Eat it!!