Cake Endeavours

For Christmas dinner I chose to make dessert.  Again, a cheesecake.  They go over really well in my family.  I followed this recipe from Pinterest  with only making one change and that was to use almond extract instead of vanilla. This cake was super yummy.  I love the tartness of the cranberry combined with the sweetness of the cake. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

For Christmas I only made 3 different treats this year, which worked out well.  It didn't take up too much of my time and also reminds of why I like to do cakes!  All three recipes did not like how dry it was in the condo. 1.  Millionaire's Shortbread  - This is my absolute favourite.  I only make it at Christmas otherwise it would be all I eat.  It's like a homemade Twix bar.  I double the recipe for the shortbread and bake in a 9 x 13 pan.  The caramel and chocolate topping I only use one recipe for and it works well.  This first batch turned out really well.  The 2nd batch the shortbread was way to flakey; not a bad thing but it doesn't cut as nicely when it's a bit wetter.  Of course, I had to add some gold to the top to see how it turned out. 2.  Melting Moments  - This is a family recipe, but you can find different variations on Pinterest.  They don't normally look like balls as I would normally press them down with a fork before baking but again it

Today we had a family get together at one of my cousin's house.  I was tasked with bringing a dessert.  She was worried that I was tired of making desserts but I love to get a chance to do whatever I want and try something new; something that doesn't necessarily have to be a cake or elaborately decorated.  Okay, so I still made a cake, but a cheesecake is a totally different category.  I found the recipe on  Pinterest .  I did make a few changes from the recipe: I used a 10" pan instead of a 9", used almond extract instead of vanilla and I didn't bother to strain the apricot jam.  Continuing the gold kick I added some to the tops of the raspberries.  This is a really good recipe!  It went over well with the family.

There's nothing more fun to do then a 1st birthday cake; especially when it's pink and gold. I've always had trouble with covering fondant in gold that didn't look like it had streaks.  Finally, I purchased some amazing  gold metallic lustre dust  from Flour Confections.  It was worth every dime!  It went on like butter! Before the buttercream icing had chance to set I added the fondant letters to the cake and then refrigerated until it was ready for pick up. The cake was two tiered; 10" two layer chocolate and 8" two layer vanilla.  I love how the gold shimmers!