Sweet Tea Tiramisu Trifle for Two

Sweet Tea Tiramisu Trifle for Two is my Southern shortcut skinny version of the classic Italian dessert. Less than 160 calories and ready in 15 minutes!

Tiramisu means "pick me up" or "cheer me up". It's typically made with espresso and/or rum soaked ladyfingers and layered with mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. Well, here in the South, sweet tea is what cheers us up! The calories from sweet tea... not-so-much. I use pre-sweetened tea bags to make this easy dessert in minutes.

I'm a "tea"totaler, so no rum in this recipe! The classic version of Tiramisu is loaded with fat and calories (and oh so good!) and makes at least 8 servings that might hang out in my fridge tempting me to overeat.

My shortcut version (also, oh so good!) is made with pre-sweetened sweet tea bags (or your homemade sweet tea made with an extra tea bag) and only makes 2 servings-just enough for my husband and me. It's half the calories with all the YUM!

Only spending 15 minutes to make a romantic dessert for my husband and me (while not having a pan of leftovers tempting me to eat the whole thing) cheers me up, too!

For this special occasion, I don't need to make a dessert that serves more than two servings. I know I will end up eating it all and that cancels out the entire week at the gym, right?

To top it off, I don't have to make a whole pitcher of sweet tea just to make this show-stopping dessert. You can use tea bags that are cold brew so no waiting for the hot water to cool down before soaking the angel food cake cubes.

How to make Sweet Tea Tiramisu Trifle for Two

I wanted to make this with traditional Ladyfingers. Turns out, they tend to be a seasonal item for the standard grocery store.

No worries! Angel food cake is fat-free and cholesterol-free. It's a great substitute and readily available all year round. Score! Sometimes you can find it sold in "half-cake" size on the day-old bakery cart (which is perfect for soaking up tea) and also in the smaller loaf size at Walmart.

The first step to make Sweet Tea Tiramisu Trifle is to steep 2 individual serving size bags of pre-sweetened sweet tea bags in ½ cup water for 10 minutes. That is twice the amount of tea bags and half the amount of water for a regular glass of iced tea to create a strong tea mixture.

Can I make my own strong sweet tea for this recipe?

You can make this concentrated mixture with any tea bag that is pre-sweetened such as Southern Breeze. Just follow the package directions by reducing the amount of water by half and doubling the number of tea bags. You just want to end up with ½ cup strong sweet tea. You can also just use strong tea that is sweetened with Splenda.

This is a concentrated sweet tea mixture because the Italian Tiramisu is made with espresso or strong coffee so I am going for a strong tea flavor, here.

Brush or drizzle the concentrated tea mixture over the cubed angel food cake. The cake will absorb it very quickly.

No mixer needed here. Neufchatel is soft like Mascarpone cheese that is typically used in classic Tiramisu. Just stir together Neufchatel and sugar-free Cool Whip with a wire whisk to create a creamy mixture to layer between sweet tea-soaked angel food cake cubes.

Layer half of the soaked cake cubes in small dessert dishes, then half of the creamy mixture; repeat with remaining cake and creamy mixture, dolloping the creamy mixture on top. Then, sprinkle with grated bittersweet chocolate. Simply use a vegetable peeler to scrape the side of the chocolate baking bar to create shavings.

Options:

Cocoa powder is traditionally sprinkled on top of Tiramisu and would work fine on my recipe, but the bittersweet chocolate adds very few calories and is a perfect pairing with the fresh raspberries. Strawberries can be traded out for the raspberries.

Lite Cool Whip can be used in place of sugar-free Cool Whip. If you are on the Keto diet and fat is not an issue, go for the mascarpone cheese and whipping cream instead of Neufchatel and Cool Whip!

So many options in this recipe. So few calories. How sweet it is!

I served it with two antique Woolworth ice tea spoons my mom gave me from my Grandma's estate. They may be soda fountain spoons, but they look like iced sweet tea spoons to me.

Garnishes

I garnished with fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings. Chocolate shavings look really fancy but these couldn't be easier to make. I just used my vegetable peeler to scrape down the narrow sides of the bittersweet chocolate baking bar.

Shave the chocolate directly onto the dessert because they are fragile and actually melt on your fingertips. You can also shave them onto a paper plate, then sprinkle them on when you are ready to serve.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Be social and share, y'all! Want all my new recipes and updates? Get my weekly newsletter in your inbox!

Leave a comment below the printable recipe if you have questions or want to tell me how you liked the recipe. Don't forget to give the recipe a rating of 5 stars if you love it!

Updated 1/2021