Nurturing my inner... grown up snack cup

I saw Rachel Ray make this and then I tweaked it a little.  Some days you just gotta take a little help from someone who has already done it.  (No need to reinvent the dessert wheel from scratch.)  Due credit is given, so let's not dilly-dally.

Easy Tiramisu (Or I just came up with "Tira-made-simple")

1-2 pkgs of lady fingers (sponge cakes)
8 oz espresso (or 1 heaping tsp instant decaf espresso powder to 8 oz water)
1-2 shots Kaluha coffee-flavored liquor
2 pkgs mascarpone cheese (Wegmans carries it!)
½ cup confectionery sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Fra Angelico hazelnut-flavored liquor (or other options below)
Unsweetened cocoa powder

You can make this in one dish, but I like to make it in four smaller containers for individual portions.

A bunch of cool stuff.

Let's start with the espresso.  I use decaf for this, because dessert is mostly at night for me and I don't want to be up until 3:00 am.  (This is how I know this little fact: a friend once accidentally served three friends and me all caffeinated coffee and didn't want to tell us after she realized.  That night everyone was up until the wee hours of the morning.  When we all got together the next time, each person mentioned how they were up all night that night.  That's when she came clean!  Busted!  We would have popped her one, but we were all laughing so hard about it, we nearly fell on the floor.)

Having some instant espresso around makes
it fast and easy.

Eight ounces of room temp water with espresso powder, Kaluha and mix.  A shallow bowl works best.

Brewing it is easy too. I make stove top
espresso every week. Seven minutes.

It's wise to prepare all the elements first, then you're ready to assemble quickly.  To make the cream, add the mascarpone cheese, confectionery sugar, vanilla and Fra Angelica.  (You could add any number of flavored liquors instead.  Chambord for raspberry, Cointreau for orange, Godiva for chocolate.)

There really is no substitute for mascarpone.
So splurge!

Beat until creamy with a hand mixer.

Reminds me of tangy cream cheese frosting,
only lighter.

Take the lady fingers and dip quickly into the espresso.  Just a couple/few seconds on both sides.

Don't leave them in too long or they will get
soggy and fall apart in your hands.

The container I used this time was square because it fit well, but I've manged to use round cup-sized ones and break some lady fingers in half to fit the shape.  They are very forgiving once doused.

Three worked perfectly.

Add an eighth of the cream mixture to the top of each set of lady fingers in each of the four containers.

First layer.

Smooth out the first layer of cream with a small spatula.  Delicately.  The lady fingers get soft quickly.

Don't press too hard.

Repeat by placing the next layer of soaked lady fingers in the opposite direction.  On top of that, add another eighth of the cream on each to finish.

Lucky I had any left. I wanted to eat the
sweetened mascarpone mixture right out
of the bowl!

Finish off by dusting with unsweetened cocoa powder.  I have a tiny sifter I send it through, so no lumps.  Refrigerate for a couple hours or more.  (You could make some homemade whipped cream and add that as a layer before the cocoa powder if you wanted a little more fluff.)

Just enough to add a hint of chocolate flavor.

Real tiramisu is heavenly, but more involved and uses raw egg yolks.  I had first tried this recipe when I was making Italian for some friends, suddenly decided I should make dessert, and was headed over to their house in just a few hours, so I had to travel with it.  I was able to get it done fast and the individual containers worked so well.  Gave us all a good stopping point.  Plus, who doesn't like their very own individual serving size of dessert!