Berry Cheesecake

I made cheesecake when I was in LA this summer and thought I'd share the pictures to brighten up your day after all this gloomy snow.

After having company over all evening, I started this cheesecake at 11 pm and finished many hours later, but I'm so happy with how it turned out! My oven left a few wonky marks on top because the cheesecake rose quite a bit, but that's nothing some fresh berries can't fix!

I used a hybrid of this recipe and this one.

For the topping, I let the berries macerate in a bowl with some sugar and vanilla bean paste, then tossed them in some warm apricot jam to give them a little extra flavor and a bit of shine.

This cheesecake was sent to a party with my little sister, so I never got a taste, but I heard it went over well! Now I just have to make it again so I can cut myself a nice big slice...

Cowboy Hats and Cowboy Boots

I made cookies. They look like cowboy boots and cowboy hats and have edible glitter and gold luster dust all over them. What more can you possibly want?

Oh yeah. And I made 100 of them.

The cowboy hats were so much fun because I got to make each one a bit different and I love the sparkly gold detailing.

The cowboy boots, however, were quite a bit trickier and took FOREVER. Notice the gold spur and the clunky heel?

But they're cute, so it was all worth it.

Lots and Lots of Green Cupcakes

So, I made cupcakes a few months ago.  Lots and lots of them. And they were delicious. I've baked for years, but, because I always gobble up everything I make,  I've never tackled the transportation problem. To change that, I made about 200 mini cupcakes to bring to work so I could see how well these treats handled the ride and the summer heat. 

In case you can't tell, we had a color-wars type thing happening at camp that week. Can you guess which team my campers were on?

I'll give you a hint. Here we have some green velvet cupcakes dipped in sprinkles with cream cheese frosting.



And some vanilla bean green (no, not vanilla green bean) cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

If you spent this post imagining what 150 cupcakes look like at my dining room table at midnight, today's your lucky day.

They traveled beautifully and lasted all day in an air-conditioned room. I bought 1/2 sheet boxes and used a mini cupcake size insert so there were 48 babycakes in each box. Dumped them in my trunk, drove normally, and ta da! The only problem I had was preventing myself from taking that 5th cupcakes when there was only one left at the end of the day. After all, it really didn't make sense to take just one home all by itself, did it?