Trader Joe's Lemon Tiramisu Review: Tira-Miss-U

Trader Joe's Lemon Tiramisu is one of those products where I completely understand the idea.

Take tiramisu, trade the coffee and cocoa for bright lemon flavors, and turn a rich Italian dessert into something lighter and sunnier.

I'm listening.

Unfortunately, somewhere between the idea and the freezer aisle, things went sideways.

Because after trying Trader Joe's Lemon Tiramisu, I have two questions.

First, where's the tiramisu?

And second, why is my cake swimming? Tiramisu is a moist cake because of the dipped ladyfinger cookies, but this was soaked.

Jump to:

• Review
• Where's the Lemon Curd?
• Is This Actually Tiramisu?
• How I Would Have Made This Better
• FAQs about Trader Joe's Lemon Tiramisu
• Final Thoughts
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Review

Let's start with the name because calling this Lemon Tiramisu sets up some expectations.

I'm not saying a lemon tiramisu needs coffee or cocoa. Obviously, those flavors wouldn't necessarily make sense here. I'm perfectly happy to let Trader Joe's take some creative liberties.

But tiramisu traditionally gets much of its structure from ladyfingers layered with mascarpone. Trader Joe's skips the ladyfingers entirely and uses a very light sponge cake instead.

And that changes the dessert considerably.

What you end up with feels less like a variation on tiramisu and more like a very wet lemon cake topped with sweetened mascarpone.

Honestly, if Trader Joe's had called this some sort of lemon soaked cake, I probably would have approached it differently.

Instead, I went looking for tiramisu and found something much closer to a dairy-light lemon tres leches cake.

Let's talk about the cake: the sponge cake itself is incredibly light.

Or at least I think it is.

It's difficult to appreciate the actual texture because the cake is absolutely saturated with sweet lemon syrup.

And I mean saturated.

This isn't a pleasantly moist cake. This is the kind of wet where you're wondering whether somebody misunderstood the assignment and thought the cake needed to be hydrated.

The comparison that kept coming to mind was tres leches. Except instead of being soaked with a rich mixture of milks, this is drenched in a sugary lemon liquid.

That means you get sweetness on top of sweetness without the richness that normally balances a soaked cake.

The lemon flavor is certainly there, but rather than tasting bright and refreshing, it gets buried underneath all that sugar.

Where's the Lemon Curd?

This might be the most frustrating part.

Trader Joe's already sells a really delicious Lemon Curd.

Why not use it?

A layer or swirl of tart lemon curd could have given this dessert exactly what it needed. You'd get stronger lemon flavor, some acidity to cut through the sweetness, and another texture between the cake and mascarpone.

Or go in another direction and add some limoncello.

Trader Joe's has sold boozy desserts before. A little limoncello could have added some complexity and made the whole thing feel more intentional.

Instead, we get sweet lemon syrup.

Lots and lots of sweet lemon syrup.

It feels like a missed opportunity because the bones of a really interesting dessert are here. It just needed something to balance all that sugar.

The mascarpone topping is probably the element that connects this most clearly to tiramisu.

It's creamy, sweet, and provides some richness against the lemon soaked sponge cake.

But again, it's sweet.

When you've already got cake drenched in sugary lemon syrup underneath, I wanted the mascarpone layer to pull things back rather than add another level of sweetness.

This dessert desperately needed contrast.

Tart against sweet. Creamy against cakey. Rich against acidic.

Instead, everything seems to be heading in the same direction.

Sweet.

Is This Actually Tiramisu?

I'm going to say barely.

I'm completely fine with Trader Joe's playing fast and loose with traditional desserts. Some of their most interesting products come from doing exactly that.

But you have to leave enough of the original behind for the name to make sense.

No coffee? Fine. It's lemon tiramisu.

No cocoa? Also fine. Again, lemon.

But no ladyfingers either? Mine seemed like one.

Layers? Just one.

Now we've removed several of the defining elements and replaced the ladyfingers with what tasted like a sponge cake.

At some point, we've stopped making a variation on tiramisu and started making another dessert entirely.

And that's what this tastes like to me.

This isn't bad because it isn't traditional tiramisu. It's disappointing because calling it tiramisu doesn't accurately prepare you for what you're about to eat.

What Does Trader Joe's Lemon Tiramisu Taste Like?

Imagine an extremely light sponge cake soaked almost completely through with sweet lemon syrup and topped with sweetened mascarpone.

That's essentially what you're getting.

The lemon flavor is present, but I wouldn't describe it as particularly tart. The sweetness dominates.

Texture was actually the bigger problem for me.

There's moist cake.

There's soaked cake.

And then there's wet cake.

This crossed that line.

Instead of the syrup enhancing the sponge, there was so much liquid that the texture became distracting. And despite the packaging saying its layers of mascarpone and ladyfinger biscuits, let's call it what it is: a single layer.

How I Would Have Made This Better

I don't usually redesign Trader Joe's products from my kitchen table, but this one practically begs for it.

Use ladyfingers. Give me at least one structural connection to actual tiramisu.

Add lemon curd. Trader Joe's already has a good one. Use that tartness to balance the mascarpone.

Dial back the syrup. Moist is good. Soggy isn't.

Add limoncello. Not necessary, but it could add another layer of lemon flavor and make this feel like a more grown-up dessert.

Reduce the overall sweetness. Let lemon's natural acidity do some of the work.

Any combination of those changes could have made this much more interesting.