This pie indulged my sweet tooth, and my highly closeted rebel nature. You see, this recipe makes dulce de leche out of sweetened condensed milk. And does so by boiling the cans. Yes. Boiling them. If you are looking to add a little danger to your life, this is the way to do it. I’ve been told the cans can explode, spreading thick gooey sticky caramel milk all over your kitchen. I think some cans even explicitly warn you not to boil them due to the risk of explosion. Sounds exciting right? Pretty sure it’s made up danger though. No eruptions for me, and in all the years my grandmother made a thick, milk-based caramel sauce out of canned sweetened condensed milk, I don’t recall it ever happening to her either. I did have a little excitement while baking this pie. Enough to completely derail my day and prove that you really cannot mess up a pie this easy. More on that later.
Happy National Cheesecake Day
I’m pretty sure food holidays were invented by bloggers. Who am I to complain? Happy National Cheesecake Day everyone! Celebrate with this velvety rich New York Cheesecake topped with bright fresh strawberries! Yuuuuuum!
Easy Strawberry Pie
I am a strawberry pie novice. I’m not blessed with the nostalgia of eating it as a child. I have no memory of gobbling down a gorgeous slice on a sticky summer evening. I envy those of you who regularly enjoyed traditional strawberry pie from your favorite little diner. On the corner. With kids playing stickball in the street. And a waitress named Flo sporting bright pink lipstick and mostly purple hair. I hear strawberry pie is a pretty big deal in Pittsburgh, and since I have a new friend who hails from there, I thought I’d give it a whirl. This needs to be a “thing” on the West Coast. Like yesterday.
Rustic Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake Tart
Summer is officially here! That means soon there will be all kinds of fresh berries available! Yippee! I’m really more of an autumn girl – actually, around the end of May I start looking forward to sweaters, colorful leaves, hearty soups and the smell of new school supplies. It’s a sickness. Add it to the list of things that are completely and totally wrong with me. But, summertime certainly has the corner on berries. And I love berries. My favorite are raspberries. Especially when they are dusted with powdered sugar like perfect little summer snow-capped mountains of juicy goodness.
Pumpkin Crunch Cake
If you are familiar with dump cake, you’ll see the genius of this recipe immediately. My mom used to make dump cake when I was a kid. I’ll have to post that “recipe” sometime soon. It’s essentially canned fruit, topped with dry cake mix and smothered with butter. Not really a cake in the traditional sense, but delicious. I saw this pumpkin version and knew it would be ah-mazing. And it was. This is two delightful desserts combined into one. Pumpkin pie on the bottom and pecan pie on top. Custardy spiced goodness covered with crunchy buttery caramelized nut topping. I’m telling you, it’s far too easy for how gorgeous it turns out.
Rainbow Happiness Six Layer Cake
We had the mother of all rainbow birthdays this weekend for my sweet six-year-old Madison. My house looked like a unicorn threw up all over. It was epic fun. A hyperactivity inducing, spectrum spectacular. Brightly colored craziness. We had a blast. The pièce de résistance of the party was a stunning six layer rainbow cake. It was truly a sight to behold. It requires a bit of time, but is totally worth it for an awe inspired gasp from your guests when you cut it open.