(Half Post: Tiramisu and Cappuccino Chocolate Cups)

I know this is a blog about baking my way through the Pie Bible, but pies aren’t the only thing I make. I occasionally venture into other desserts, and even do some actual cooking once in awhile, though I usually keep those pictures in a separate file, just for me. But these chocolate cups were too cute to keep to myself. Thus, the not-officially-a-part-of-the-project-and-quite-paranthetical-but-still-worthy-of-sharing half-post!

Some of my friends have told me that they come to my blog to drool. Awww, shucks, that’s so sweet! Thanks guys:) But if I may make a confession, I have a site like that too: Sprinklebakes.com! I stumbled upon the site while browsing through cooking clips on youtube, and I literally stood the night up going through the entire blog. I was just so blown away by Ms. Sprinkle’s dessert (what can only be called) creations. I now regularly (= obsessively) check for updates (= opportunities to drool). Sadly, many of her “pieces” require unobtainable/expensive ingredients/equipment, and I already have a pretty demanding project going on right here. However, I was able to combine several different ideas of Ms. Sprinkle’s and sort of fit them into my own agenda…

I decided to make tiramisu chocolate cups! First, the chocolate cups. A very simple idea, really, where you dip small water balloons into melted chocolate. But everything, from blowing them up to wiping them down and dipping them neatly, was a challenge. And let me tell you, a couple of them burst and splattered chocolate all over my desk, books, wall, and who knows what else (I am apt to find stickiness in random places around my room now). I was up until the wee hours that night. Oy!

Homemade ladyfingers, dipped in (probably) the best coffee in Seoul, resting on the zabaglione + pastry cream + mascarpone + whipped cream filling. This is starting to look more promising.

Covered with more filling, dusted with some cocoa powder, swirled with a dab of cream, and finally, topped off with coffee “caviar.” The caviar, I would have to say, is a true manifestation of Ms. Sprinkle’s genius! I could not not make them once I saw the video. A certain friend, upon seeing the caviar, said I have finally crossed the line from normal obsessive to clean crazy. To that, I say -- it was totally worth it!

Et voila!

This rounded off an “Italian” dinner of chicken Marsala on spinach fettuccine. Really, it was all an elaborate way to use up the Marsala I’d bought a couple of months ago!

*****

But I had a lot of chocolate cups leftover. What could I do but make more dessert? This time, more directly from Ms. Sprinkle’s repertoire – cappuccino mousse!

Doe is intrigued.

It was less delicate, but much much simpler to make.

Doe examines the ruins of lost dessert.

But it was a semi-disaster. Even after I cooled down the mousse to something like room temperature (for maybe a summer’s day… in India), some of the chocolate cups couldn’t take the heat and pressure and just sort of… gave up. I’d originally planned to share/give these away, but faced with the unpleasant choices of either suffering from major sugar overdose or letting good dessert go to waste, I chose the latter. They ended up in the food waste bin, along with all the other gross things that usually end up in there:(

But the two that survived were coffee sweetness:) The perfect dessert for coffee lovers!