Black Magic Cake

I wanted to make the deepest, darkest, chocolate cake. This recipe is actually a classic Hershey's recipe. It turned out super moist and rich. I added a layer of raspberry jam in between the layers of cake and poured dark chocolate ganache over the top and sides.

Lemon Custard Tartlets

I bought pre-made tartlet shells from Safeway's freezer section when they were on sale. They were really easy to use and saved me the trouble of making my own dough. To make the custard I cooked it on the stove top, poured it into the shells and then baked it. They turned out okay but the lemon flavor didn't shine through. I think i'ts because I only added zest. The next time I need to add some lemon juice or extract too.

Strawberry Cream Cake

We are studying Korea this month. In celebration we baked a strawberry cream cake. Like many Asian cakes, this recipe produced a very light and cottony sponge cake. We frosted it with whipped cream and covered it with fresh sliced strawberries. Sage did the decorating. He said he wanted the side to look like a face.

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

Sage bought cinnamon raisin bagels, ate one and declared that he didn't like them. They stayed on the counter for a few days and then ended up in the fridge. Determined not to throw them away, I cut them up and made them into bread pudding. The apples and caramel for the topping were leftover from our caramel apple project. It made for a nice, warm Halloween breakfast. Great for a cold and rainy morning.

Skull Caramel Apples

Happy Halloween! Every year we wander by the chocolate shop and see candy and caramel apples in the window. This year we finally decided to make our own. We faced a few challenges including caramel sticking to the waxed paper ( don't forget to spray it!) , sticks falling out, bubbly caramel, caramel pooling at the bottom of the apples as it cooled and lumpy candy melts. It did make me realize how much work goes into making these. They are kind of like giant cake pops. And you need a lot of coating to be able to cover it smoothly. I think they will get easier to make the more we keep at it but I think next year we'll make something else.

Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

These spider cookies were so fun to make. They are a rift on the classic peanut blossoms. The cookie is a traditional peanut butter where the dough is rolled into balls and rolled in sugar. But instead of pressing a chocolate kiss on the top, we used malted milk balls and chocolate covered hazelnuts. For the heads we used Reece's Pieces. The kids ate all the yellow and orange ones earlier. The legs are piped with melted semisweet baker's chocolate.

Cinnamon Walnut Cake