desserts

Tasty Tuesday: The Top Five–Food Photos of 2023

Time for a look at my favorite food photos from 2023! Most of them are dessert photos (hey, it’s not my fault desserts are so photogenic!), but let’s start with a spread I made featuring white borscht last winter:

Now on to the desserts. This white chocolate blueberry-lemon cheesecake was not only delicious, it looked amazing!

I also thought this cake I made for Ladybug’s 16th birthday was beautiful:

Linzer äugen (or Spitzbuben) are one of my favorite cookies to bake (and eat!) and they always look so lovely:

And most recently, the peppermint chip cake I made for Christmas Eve:

I’m including a bonus photo, because it’s not of something I made myself, but this Rainbow Cone just looks too good not to share!

This is just the beginning…stayed tuned for more “Top Five” lists for 2023, and then my year in review!

Tasty Tuesday–Holiday Baking 2019

We never did get around to making and decorating cut-out cookies this year (I think we’ll make that a Valentine’s Day activity!), but I thought it would be fun to take a look back at all of the holiday baking we did do, from Thanksgiving Eve through Epiphany.

16 Dozen Cookies (four different kinds):

11 Pies (a total of eight varieties):

Layer Cake:

Coffee Cake:

Bûche de Noël:

Apple-Cranberry Bread Pudding:

Gingerbread-Eggnog Trifle:

Lussekattes for Santa Lucia Day:

Crème Brûlée:

Epiphany Baklava:

Even without the cut-out cookies, this may have been the busiest year of baking yet…it was delicious fun!

Chocolate Torte Cake

Every time I make this cake, it gets great reviews, so I thought I’d share…

1 German Chocolate cake mix

14 oz. bag of caramels, unwrapped

1 1/2 sticks butter

1/2 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans

Whipped Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking dish.

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour half of batter into prepared pan, and bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter, caramels and evaporated milk in saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Take cake out of oven and pour caramel mixture over top. Sprinkle chocolate chips and pecans over caramel, then spread remaining batter over all. Return to oven and bake additional 20 minutes.

Allow to cool on wire rack, then refrigerate. Serve with whipped cream.