Copycat Olive Garden Tiramisu (no raw eggs, no alcohol)

This decadent copycat Olive Garden tiramisu is made with coffee-soaked ladyfingers nestled between layers of creamy whipped mascarpone cream and topped off with a generous dusting of cocoa powder. It’s got no raw eggs & no alcohol!

How to Make the Tiramisu

• Prepare your assembly line : making tiramisu at home is really easy when you take a few minutes to prep your station. Set up your station like this:
  • Bowl One (Leftmost) : your storebought ladyfingers, any brand will do the job I just pick whatever’s at the grocery store when I go.
  • Bowl Two (Second from Left) : the coffee mixture, if you have espresso use chilled espresso. otherwise, instant espresso mixed with water does a great job!
  • Bowl Three (Third from Left) : the final dish you want to assemble your tiramisu in.
  • Bowl Four (Fourth from Left) : the mascarpone cream
  • Bowl Five (Fifth from Left) : the chocolate shavings

• Make the Tiramisu Cream : Since we’re making this tiramisu recipe with no raw eggs, this step is actually super easy!
  • First, we make fresh whipped cream in a bowl by beating cold heavy cream until it’s fluffy.
  • Then, in a seperate bowl, beat together mascarpone, sugar and vanilla extract until it’s fluffy & add in the whipped cream.

• Assemble the Tiramisu :
  • Dip the ladyfingers in.
  • Spread on a thick layer of the mascarpone cream & sprinkle on the shaved chocolate. Repeat layer between the ladyfingers, mascarpone and chocolate shavings.
  • At the end, sprinkle on the remaining chocolate shavings and top with a dusting of cocoa powder.

• Rest in the fridge overnight for best results!

What makes the Olive Garden Tiramisu special

Whether you’re a hater or a lover of Olive Garden, we’ve all had at least one birthday there. At least, in my house, we did – almost every year growing up. I’d always get a chicken gnocchi soup, followed by a chicken marsala and end the birthday diner with a thick slice of the Olive Garden tiramisu. As a coffee lover and a chocolate fiend, their tiramisu is everything I’d ever want out of a birthday cake.

Nowadays, I can think of better birthday dinners than Olive Garden pasta but a tiramisu stands as the best birthday cake possible. I started developing this recipe on my 20th birthday, so it’s been through multiple trials & I’ve broken it down into the easiest possible version with no raw eggs, minimal ingredients and restaurant quality results every time.

What Makes this Recipe Better

• No Raw Eggs : After trying this recipe with & without eggs, I chose to make this tiramisu recipe without raw eggs because it’s really finicky to work it if you’re a beginner. Plus, I have a lot of friends who get the ick from raw eggs & can’t eat the Olive Garden one cause of the raw eggs.
• No Alcohol : The Olive Garden tiramisu uses alcohol liqueur in their tiramisu. While I enjoy the occasional drink, I personally don’t think Kailua adds that much to tiramisu & not worth including at the cost of leaving out my friends who are pregnant or don’t drink.
• Extra Chocolate : After my many trials of tiramisu, I found that the trick to getting extra chocolatey tiramisu like Olive Garden tiramisu is to add in layers of shaved chocolate between the ladyfingers and mascarpone.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Don’t UNDERSOAK or OVERSOAK your ladyfingers. I’ve found most recipes recommend one second soaks, and in my experience that just leads to dry tiramisu. On the contrary, oversoaking leads to a wet, soggy cake. Make sure the coffee is in a shallow bowl, so that when you dip the lady fingers in it, the coffee only reaches half of the lady finger. My optimal dipping method is each side for 3-4 seconds and place it in the dish.
• Don’t underwhip your whipped cream. The cream should be whipped until stiff peaks so it provides structure to the cream.
• Don’t overdo the mascarpone. Basically the exact opposite of the whipped cream. When you overwhip your mascarpone cream it just turns runny. It’s in a good place when you can plop it on something and it doesn’t lose shape quickly.

FAQ

Can you make tiramisu without espresso?

Yes! The trick – instant espresso! It’s literally $5 and you mix it with water. It gives you that rich espresso hit.

Even now that I have an espresso machine I don’t use real espresso to make tiramisu. It takes forever to make that much espresso and wait for it to chill. I promise, it doesn’t takes like dalgona coffee. Just follow the instructions on the instant coffee to make 2 cups of coffee. Plus, if you have any leftover espresso, you can turn it into a brown sugar shaken espresso.

How long does tiramisu last?

Anytime you make a recipe that’s no-bake, the dish will stay good as long as the earliest expiration date.

The simple answer is it lasts at up to a week in the fridge & even longer if you freeze it! BUT it can last longer. So when I make tiramisu, I just make sure to get dishes that all have a longer expiration date so it stays good for 2 weeks.

Can you freeze tiramisu?

YES, you can freeze tiramisu. In fact, everyone should probably have an emergency stash of tiramisu just in case. It’ll last for up to 3 months in the freezer, just make sure to cover the dish tightly with 2 layers of plastic wrap and 1 layer of aluminium foil.

Move it to the refrigerator the night before you’re ready to serve so it completely thaws and give it a fresh dusting of cocoa powder.

What can I use instead of mascarpone in tiramisu?

You can substitute mascarpone in tiramisu with cream cheese! This recipe works well with cream cheese – if you can find light cream cheese use that. If not, regular cream cheese works well too.

Whether you don’t like the flavor of mascarpone or it’s just too expensive where you live, cream cheese makes a perfect substitute.

Can you make tiramisu without coffee?

You can, but it will taste very different. I love a good biscoff chai tiramisu – just substitute the lady fingers for biscoff cookies and substitute the espresso for homemade chai (make sure to chill it first)!

Does Olive Garden use alcohol in their tiramisu?

Yep, Olive Garden does use alcohol liquor in all of their tiramisu desserts. However, this recipe does not include any alcohol in it. If you do want to add it in, just add 2 shots of Kahlua to the recipe and it’ll do the job!

Does Olive Garden tiramisu have coffee?

Yep, just like most other Tiramisu you’ll find at restaurants, Olive Garden’s tiramisu has coffee in it.

How many calories in an Olive Garden Tiramisu cake?

The tiramisu at Olive Garden has 470 calories per piece.

More No-Bake Desserts

• Single Serve Apple Crisp
• No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Jars

Copycat Olive Garden Tiramisu (no raw eggs, no alcohol)

---

★★★★★

5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Ramya Ravuri
• Total Time: Rest Overnight
• Yield: 8

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Description

This decadent copycat Olive Garden tiramisu is made with coffee-soaked ladyfingers nestled between layers of creamy whipped mascarpone cream and topped off with a generous dusting of cocoa powder. It’s got no raw eggs & no alcohol!

---

Ingredients

Scale

1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x 8x 9x 10x 11x 12x 13x 14x 15x 16x 17x 18x 19x 20x

1x2x3x 4x 5x 6x 7x 8x 9x 10x 11x 12x 13x 14x 15x 16x 17x 18x 19x 20x

• 1 cup mascarpone cheese, room temp (substitute in faq)
• 1.5 cups heavy cream (cold)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups coffee/espresso (if using instant coffee, refer to faq)
• 24 lady fingers
• 1 bar of chocolate
• 1–2 tbsp cocoa powder

---

Instructions

Prep

1. Add the heavy cream to a bowl and beat with a hand mixer or whisk until stiff peaks. Set aside.
2.  In a separate bowl, beat together mascarpone, sugar and vanilla extract until it’s fluffy & add in the whipped cream. Use a spatula to mix everything well. (refer to the mistake to avoid section above)
3. To make the chocolate shavings, just use a knife and run it along the edge of your chocolate bar at a 45 degree angle to make shavings. If that feels too complex or it’s just not working, just put it in a blender and blitz it up.
4. Prepare your assembly line 
   • Bowl One (Leftmost) : your storebought ladyfingers, any brand will do the job I just pick whatever’s at the grocery store when I go.
   • Bowl Two (Second from Left) : the coffee/espresso
   • Bowl Three (Third from Left) : the final dish you want to assemble your tiramisu in.
   • Bowl Four (Fourth from Left) : the mascarpone cream
   • Bowl Five (Fifth from Left) : the chocolate shavings

Assemble the Tiramisu :

1. Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee mixture. Don’t over or under dip! (refer to mistake to avoid section above)
2. In an 8×8 dish, spread on a layer of the mascarpone cream & sprinkle on the shaved chocolate. Repeat with another layer of the ladyfingers and chocolate shavings.
3. Then spread on a THICK layer of mascarpone and sprinkle on the remaining chocolate shavings.  Top with a dusting of cocoa powder & stick it in the refrigerator overnight. The patience is worth it I promise!!

This is one of my favourite desserts to make so I really hope you love it! Make sure to leave a review if you do, it helps me grow the blog 🙂

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Method: No Bake
• Cuisine: Italian