White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

In August, we celebrated my husband's, brother's and mother's birthdays. A white chocolate raspberry cake had been requested from a local bakery, but I didn't realize they needed over a week's notice to make it. Instead, I found a recipe for white chocolate cake and made it myself. It was sandwich layer included the icing as well as some raspberry sauce which was also served with the finished cake. I topped it with raspberries and melted dark chocolate that I used to write out "Happy Birthday" and create scroll work designs.

This cake was time consuming, calorie-laden, and more expensive in terms of ingredients than I normally would go for, but it got a unanimous thumbs up!

A Very Berry Tart

I had never made a tart before, and maybe never even eaten one, but I stumbled across this recipe from the blog Cooking with my Kid, and was inspired to make it for a book club brunch I was hosting.

It was quite easy. I used fresh raspberries and frozen blueberries, and have decided that frozen works perfectly - just use frozen (don't thaw the berries first). I don't keep self-rising flour on hand, but here's a simple recipe to make it.

As I said, I'd never had a tart before, so I'll let you know it tasted like a cross between a cookie and a cake in terms of texture and density. Not overly sweet, with nice tart berry bursts.