Identify this dessert?

Over ten years ago, I made a dessert for a party. It was a big hit, but I’ve lost the recipe. Worse, I’ve lost the name of the dessert and haven’t been able to find it. Everything is too common and too vague.

It involved an unfrosted yellow cake layer, frozen and cut into cubes. The cubes were then stirred into a mixture of chocolate and coffee and gelatin, etc., then the whole thing was poured into a bread pan and refrigerated until set.

Does this ring any bells for anyone? I’m almost certainly leaving out important steps and ingredients.

Sounds kind of like tiramisu, but not exactly.

Some variation on a trifle?

Not quite like a tiramisu in that it didn’t have layers. It was all mixed together and then was sliced like bread. Though the slices were pretty fragile.

I thought of it while I was thinking about bread pudding, and it has things in common with bread pudding, though it’s not really quite like bread pudding either.

It’s funny you mention tiramisu, because I was puzzling over how to make tiramisu bread pudding!

I’ll ask my wife if it’s still unanswered by the time she gets home. She’s a professional Pastry Chef and a walking encyclopedia of desserts.

Yes, sort of. Tiramisu typically includes mascarpone cheese, and uses ladyfingers (or similar) rather than yellow cake. However, there are a bunch of different ways to make it (a couple of months ago, I came up with a deconstructed version, with coffee ice cream and pizzelle), so it’s possible that the OP is remembering an adapted/bastardized version.

I’d recommend browsing tiramisu recipes to see if anything jumps out as being familiar.

Looks like trifles tend to be layered, too? But I’m looking at the Wikipedia entry on trifles and it mentions some variations down at the bottom that might be close.

OMG that stuff is beautiful. I had mascarpone on French toast a while back. It’s just to die for.

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts nad has been for years, so I think I’d remember if the name of this were anything similar. I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve any dairy, though it might have had alcohol in it.

The thing I remember best was how ugly it was. It turned a horrible, lumpy greyish brown, but it was delicious.

A single bump to see if anyone recognizes this beast.

In reference to the gelatin, was it flavoured with the coffee or something else, or left unflavoured?

I haven’t been able to find anything even resembling it so far, but maybe the gelatin information would help.

If I remember correctly, which is no guarantee, I think I softened the gelatin in the coffee, then added the coffee and gelatin to the chocolate, then stirred in the cake cubes. There might have been other ingredients and possibly alcohol in that mixture, too.

something like this?

Ooh! That’s not exactly it, but close enough that maybe I can find the precise recipe. Fridgecake!

Yeah!