Cherry tiramisu

This recipe was submitted by Lyn Suristed as an entry into our special occasion dessert reader recipe competition. "This is my special occasion dessert – always at Christmas and perhaps again when the cherries come down in price, and are sweet and juicy. "I cut the recipe from a newspaper years ago and unfortunately have no idea who created it..I have tweaked it a little over the years."

Ingredients

500 g	Cherries, cut in half and pitted (Main)
¼ cup	Sugar
1/8 tsp	Salt
3 large	Eggs, yolk and whites separated
¼ cup	Sugar
400 g	Mascarpone
1 cup	Cream, whipped
32	Lady finger biscuts
1 sprinkle	Dutch cocoa powder, to sprinkle

Directions

1. Place the cherry halves in a medium sized saucepan and add the first measure of sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken, this could take 20 minutes. Lower the heat and cook, uncovered for 5-8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.
2. In a bowl beat the egg yolks with half the remaining sugar until fluffy and pale yellow in colour. Add the mascarpone a little bit at a time and mix until smooth.
3. In another bowl beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites in to the mascarpone mixture. Lastly fold through the whipped cream.
4. Arrange a layer of the sponge finger biscuits over the base of a 2 litre bowl or individual glasses. Pour over a little of the cold cherry sauce and then some of the mascarpone mixture. Cover with biscuits, more cherry sauce and mascarpone mixture and continue to layer finishing with a mascarpone layer.Lastly sieve a good layer of cocoa powder on top and leave at least 4 hours in the fridge-preferably overnight.