The Sweeter Side of Life

If there is one thing that AW loves it is SWEETS! Any sweet, brownies, cookies, ice cream, you name it, he's a man and he will eat it. I usually bake Ghiradelli chocolate chip brownies once a week (I have to buy the big box at Costco). I decided to branch out and try new sweets and to make them from scratch. My first project was a cheesecake. This is the ultimate AW sweet! Instead of a traditional chocolate grooms cake at our wedding, AW had cheesecakes and it was a hit! I got the recipe from the Philadelphia cream cheese dessert book. It was so EASY to make and it was DELICIOUS! I followed the directions to a "T" but when it came out it had a mushroom shape to it. The top was all cracked and larger than the rest of the cake but when I "unsprung" my spring form pan to let it cool it settled a little but was still cracked looking. I chopped up fresh Publix strawberries and we had dessert for days!

My next project was my own birthday cake. I love strawberry cake! My wedding cake was strawberry. I went online to find the perfect homemade strawberry cake recipe but to my dismay almost everyone of those recipes called for a box white cake and strawberry gelatin to make a strawberry cake. I found a blog where someone had slightly altered a Paula Deen recipe into the best strawberry cake ever! I got to actually puree fresh Publix strawberries and mixed them in with the batter. I also made the cream cheese frosting and it was all so fabulous! I made a test cake first and then I made my actual birthday cake however I was running low on supplies and time so the actual birthday cake didn't come out nearly as delicious as the first one, sad day! But it was absolutely fabulous and if you love strawberry cake then you should definitely use this recipe! I forgot to take a picture of the final product but AW took some pictures of the process! Enjoy! PLEASE let me know if you try either one of these recipes and what you think!