Coffee Cake (Mock Tiramisu)

 Your Ama is home from the hospital after she scared me to death! Well, she is wanting some coffee cake so I thought I would add this to our collection. This is actually a mock tiramisu, but when you were little you would call this "coffee cake". Deborah didn't like coffee at that time (shocker!)  so I would sometimes make "unCoffeeCake" by using a vanilla/almond milk mixture instead of the coffee mixture. This is basically a trifle. You could make this all kinds of different ways. You could use chocolate pudding to make it a mocha type flavor. You can omit the coffee and use chocolate pudding and cherry pie filling for a black forest version. You could add softened cream cheese to the pudding mix before adding the whipped topping for a cheesecake version and fruit and omit coffee. You could use banana bread instead of angel food cake and make a banana pudding version. Your imagination as to what would taste good with some creamy fluff and cake is literally the only limit here.

Now, your Ama is not 100% yet so we don't have any videos, but I took pictures as I went along for you.

Ingredients:
Angel Food Cake, cubed
Instant Coffee or Espresso, 1/2 cup
Boiling Water, 1 cup
Sugar, 1 cup
Vanilla, 1 tsp
Cinnamon, 1 tsp + more for dusting
1/2 & 1/2 , 1/2 cup (to taste)
Pudding (vanilla or white chocolate), 2 boxes
Milk, 1 1/2 cups
Whipped Topping, 12 oz (the big one) + extra for serving if you want

 Okay, first, I use the plastic lid of the cake from the deli as my bowl. Cube up the cake- you can even tear it if you want. Next, we make the coffee mixture. Add the instant coffee, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon in a heat safe bowl stir in the boiling water. Stir until the sugar and coffee are dissolved.

 Pour this coffee mixture over the cake cubes and give it a stir to coat the cubes.

Now, let's make the pudding mixture. In a large mixing bowl (I like to use the same bowl to get all the coffee into the coffee cake), combine the milk and pudding. It is going to be thick. Now, stir in the whole big container of whipped topping. Keep scrapping it down to the bottom and get it evenly mixed in.

Now take half of the coffee infused cake cubes and put it in the empty whipped topping container. Spread and smash the other half in the bottom of the cake lid or you can use a trifle bowl if you're trying to be boujee with it. 

Next layer about half the pudding mixture on top of the cake layer. 

Repeat the last two steps, cake first then pudding.  Finally, sprinkle with some cinnamon or cocoa powder.

You can make the plastic lid presentation work by tying a piece of wide ribbon around the contain to hide the sticker and top it with aluminum foil for transit.

Finally, scoop it up in a bowl and add a dollop of whipped topping.

Okay, y'all, me and Ama are headed to the porch to enjoy. Wish you were here <3