This month the Bearsden Writers task was to write a short blog of between 300- 500 words on anything that is of interest and can include an image or photo.

Neet Neilson will start it off with a poem about something she is passionate about… Tiramisu

Like my mamma used to make…

A quest, for the best, like my mamma used to make,

was my challenge for the family recipe tiramisu cake.

Turning vegan, the dairy ridden delicacy was now forbidden,

so finding replacements and still get it to taste the same was a given.

Well, with no eggs in the sponge, and none in the cream cheese,

left me with disasters, and did nothing to appease

my sense of failure at a task I was desperate to achieve.

The marscapone alternatives, some would make you skeeve,

but to get that creamy lightness and that subtle taste

was proving impossible, and causing so much waste.

The sponge took many tries to get light, fluffy layers

instead of something more useful to bricklayers.

If it wasn’t dense enough to cause a black hole,

it was more suited as rubber you could use for a sole.

Mixtures of apple cider vinegar and soy milk to curdle

worked on texture, but left a taste to make you hurl to.

With more experimentation required than a PhD,

it took three years to produce something that filled me with glee.

With a careful balance of ingredients, and swearing aloud,

I’d come up with a sponge that would make my mamma proud.

So, now how to get a cheese that wasn’t dairy, but would cream

to a whip and taste eggy, light, and hold form like a dream?

Most used the coconut milk to get the light fluffy texture,

but the taste of coconut made resemblance just conjecture.

I went nuts with nuts in all their creamy forms and concoctions,

and with every failing was running out of options.

I still couldn’t get a cream to hold its shape and form

like the original; absolutely no attempts would conform.

Then one day, came the long-awaited manufactured cream

that whips like dairy, tastes like dairy, but is made from a bean!

With the right secret additions, to replicate to perfection,

I now had all the components to recreate this confection.

I fed it to the non-vegans and they hadn’t a clue

that this was anything but an original tiramisu.

At last, I’d succeeded where many had miserably failed

with variations and commiserations that seriously paled

into insignificance alongside the original and unique.

Now, I can shout it from the highest peak –

I did it! I made it! I’ve replicated the tiramisu cake

with a cruelty-free version much better than my mamma did make!

© Neet Neilson, 2020